Stanford researchers are trying to test whether the use of algorithms on health data could improve the way we screen for certain genetic diseases. The implications are concerning for privacy but exciting for disease prevention. And the current test has some privacy protections built in, as FiveThirtyEight explains: The researchers plan "to flag doctors who have a large number of patients who make good screening candidates and contact them. The patient data the foundation received doesn’t include personal information, so the researchers can’t see who the people are, but they can alert doctors that they have a large number of patients who should be screened[.]"
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