Guess who’s working on a health data-slurping digital tool. Bzzt! Nope, it’s the UK Department for Work and Pensions

From theregister.co.uk

The UK’s Department for Work and Pensions is drawing up plans for an internal service that allows it to automate slurps of medical data on claimants to dole out health-related benefits.

In an ad posted on the UK’s Digital Marketplace, DWP said the work was currently in alpha and it now wanted a supplier to deliver a technical proof of concept to expose NHS data to the department’s systems.

The aim, it said, is to cut down the time and cost involved in gathering information the department needs to make a decision about “the right support” for someone with a health condition or disability.

The ad stated the DWP had already carried out proof-of-concept research with what it described as a “medical records broker”. The department declined to name this provider when asked by The Register, but the listing said Niche Health Limited – an NHS records software provider that appears to go by the name iGPR – “were engaged in the discovery phase”.

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