Former political rivals call for sale of NHS data to drive AI treatment
Tony Blair and Lord Hague’s report says ‘nothing will be more important to British jobs’ than biotechnology.
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Your support makes all the difference.Former political rivals Tony Blair and Lord William Hague have called for access to medical records to be sold to help develop cutting-edge treatment.
Mr Blair, the former Labour prime minister, and the ex-Conservative leader have set out more than 40 recommendations on regulation and state support to help the UK stay at the forefront of growth in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
They say a “national purpose” to support new discoveries will be central to economic growth.
Writing in The Times, they said: “An extraordinary age of gene therapies, new antibiotics and molecular factories is beginning.
“Biotech is promising a future of new cures and treatments for many diseases, more personalised and effective healthcare, and many new materials and transformed manufacturing processes.”
The former rivals’ report says the NHS is a valuable source of data and a new approach is needed to provide commercial access to records, via a separate company.
They said the company “would strictly preserve privacy while bringing massive benefits to research, public health and patient treatment” while free from government interference.
Whatever our political differences on more traditional issues, we both believe that this is the crucial task that, more than anything else, will determine the future prosperity of Britain
“Nothing will be more important to British jobs, living standards and security in the coming years than leading the world in science and innovation,” they wrote.
“We will have to keep moving quickly if we are to be one of the main homes of changes so dramatic that they will alter forever the way we live and restructure much of the global economy.
“Whatever our political differences on more traditional issues, we both believe that this is the crucial task that, more than anything else, will determine the future prosperity of Britain.”
They say the data from millions of NHS records would provide a platform for artificial intelligence which could monitor patients via wearable technology and alert doctors of problems.
The plan also includes access to a cloud-based “personal health account” through the NHS app to book appointments and manage treatment, creating a laboratory of biodesign, helping biotech companies to scale up and creating strong international biosecurity.
The report on biotechnology is the third published by Mr Blair and Lord Hague after addressing innovation and artificial intelligence last year.