UK-based independent political website, openDemocracy has revealed that Palantir Technologies made £22 million in profits last year after winning controversial deals with the NHS.

Furthermore, since the start of 2020, Palantir has been awarded more than £46 million in public contracts by the UK government and the NHS.

WHY IT MATTERS

In February 2021, the tech-justice firm Foxglove issued a lawsuit on behalf of openDemocracy over a National Health Services deal with the controversial big data firm Palantir Technologies.  

The lawsuit claimed that NHS England failed to consider the impact of the deal on patients and the public by performing a fresh Data Protection Impact Assessment.

In March, openDemocracy successfully sued the government over Matt Hancock's £23 million NHS data deal which caused it not to extend Palantir's contract beyond the COVID pandemic without a consultation.

"Recent press coverage around the participation of privately funded companies in the management of the Covid Pandemic have highlighted the importance of openness and transparency."

-Dr Charles Alessi, chief clinical officer at HIMSS

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The NHS joined forces with Palantir, along with Microsoft and Amazon, last year to develop a data platform to inform the COVID-19 response. The move triggered concerns from privacy activists, who urged NHS to be "extremely cautious and transparent in its dealings with Palantir."  

According to a blog posted on Gov.UK, NHS England and Improvement planned to collate data from across NHS and social care organisation sources, including the NHS 111 call centre, NHS Digital and COVID-19 test result date from Public Health England.

After openDemocracy and Foxglove sent legal letters demanding transparency about the agreements, the UK government released the contracts in June.  

ON THE RECORD

Dr Charles Alessi, chief clinical officer at HIMSS, told Healthcare IT News: "Recent press coverage around the participation of privately funded companies in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of openness and transparency. 

"No government globally can be expected to have all the insights and expertise required internally, however well funded and well organised they are, thus the requirement to seek external support is well established. What is of fundamental importance is the transparency of this process to ensure that trust is not eroded as we move to a far more dynamic relationship between health and care systems and citizens."