“A secretive project at the US Department of Health and Human Services is working with technology companies to collect and analyze data related to the novel coronavirus.”
“The effort, dubbed HHS Protect, includes about 2.5 billion pieces of data from healthcare providers, government officials, and labs around the country about coronavirus case numbers, hospital capacity, and even supply-chain issues.”
“The goal is to learn about the progression of outbreaks and, with the help of the data-analysis firm Palantir Technologies, distill that information for the White House coronavirus task force and other officials, a spokesperson for HHS told Business Insider in a statement.”
“But a few issues have plagued HHS Protect from the onset. It took until April 10 for it to get up and running, as regulators worked to compile messy reports from hospitals that lacked guidance on how to format them and sometimes digital infrastructures to collect the information in the first place, according to administrators and consultants interviewed by Business Insider…”
Protect is planning to work with medical-records companies
“The federal government isn’t collecting personal information via HHS Protect, but it plans to. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will share patient data with the HHS platform, and efforts are underway to collect it from private companies as well, a spokesperson told Business Insider…”
Palantir’s work behind the scenes
“The project, which is run by HHS’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, is trying to anticipate where the virus is heading and keep government officials informed, broadly speaking.”
“It’s not clear which Palantir products HHS is using to comb through ventilator, bed, and intensive-care-unit use — and the rest of the information stored there — but the partnership is ongoing, HHS said.”
“They’re working together to analyze and model more than 200 datasets from about 5,700 hospitals and report directly to White House officials, governors, and local leaders, according to HHS…” Read the full article here.
Source: HHS Protect: Palantir healthcare data project for coronavirus – May 7, 2020. News Info Park.
