Google's New Project: Your Health Records
Larry Magid Looks Why You Might Trust The Internet Giant With Your Personal Information
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(AP / CBS)
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The service allows users to create an online profile that includes information about any medical conditions, test results, procedures, immunizations and medications. You’re also asked to enter in your height, weight, blood type and race. With this information, the service, in theory, could offer you tailored medical information as well as serving as a central hub storing your medical records.
Eventually the goal is for users to be able to import their health information from the secure websites of care providers. To that end, Google already has arrangements with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the Cleveland Clinic as well the online pharmacies from Longs Drugs, Walgreens, RXAmerica and Medco. A relationship with Quest Diagnostics allows users of its services to import their lab tests. Google also has a link to the American Heart Association’s heart attack risk assessment site so that you can get your customized risk assessment without having to retype your height, weight, cholesterol and other into the Heart Association’s site.
One nice feature is the drug interaction alert that lets you know about potential conflicts between drugs you take. Of course, you have to remember to enter all your drugs for that to work.
Because none of my providers are among Google’s initial partners, I had to enter all the information myself. Fortunately, it was easy to find because the health clinic I use most of the time has its own online service that stores this information. I’m pretty happy with what my provider offers but it’s an island of information. If, for example, I were to have a blood test done elsewhere, that information would not be on my provider’s site nor is there a way I could even type it in. Google is trying to solve that problem by creating a health record keeping system that is controlled by the user, not the health care provider. This is especially important for those of us who don’t belong to a health maintenance organization (HMO) because we might visit different physicians who are not affiliated with each other.Podcast: CBS News technology analyst Larry Magid discussed Google Health with Google product Manger Dr. Ronnie Zeiger and with health author and prevention specialist Dr. Dean Ornish who is an adviser to Google
Clearly privacy is the number one concern when it comes to any online medical information service. Google’s health privacy policy states that “You control who can access your personal health information. By default, you are the only user who can view and edit your information.” You can, however choose to share your information with others. The company also promises not to “sell, rent, or share your information” and will let you delete your account or any information in it at any time.
But even though I take Google at its word, I worry about hackers. Google Health product manager, Dr. Roni Zeiger, told me that the company has very good security and while Google does have a good track record in this area, there is never an ironclad guarantee that a site couldn’t be hacked. Of course - despite safeguards required under the federal “HIPAA law (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) - there is also the possibility that someone could break into your doctor’s office to steal your records or that your health care provider could be careless about its own privacy and security policies.
Because of my inability to import information into the service, I find it of minimal use at the moment but I do see the potential, especially after more service providers come online. I also see the potential of linking this and similar services to health and fitness technology products such as blood pressure cuffs, scales and exercise equipment. By coincidence, Google launched the service the same day as the U.S. launch of Nintendo’s Wii Fit Balance board and workout software. I could easily see how Nintendo and Google could work together to make both products more useful by linking them via the Internet.
Dr. Dean Ornish, the preventive medicine author, serves as an advisor to Google Health and attended the launch event at Google headquarters in Silicon Valley Monday. I asked Dr. Ornish why putting health information into patients’ hands was better than relying on solely on doctors to provide necessary care and information. “That model,” he said “has been of limited value because it provides all the information and all the control with the physician … It’s much more powerful to have a collaborative relationship with the patient where the physician becomes the resource that has information, shares that information and provides choices to the patient about what to do with it - the risks, the benefits, the costs the side effects and so on.” He argues that “Google Health can help provide that information to the patient as well as the physician.”
Google is not without competition. Microsoft has launched its own HealthVault service which it bills as “the hub of a network of Web sites, personal health devices and other services that you can use to help manage your health.” So, in addition to fighting over Yahoo and search advertising, these two giant technology companies are slugging it out over your health records.
By Larry Magid
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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See all 23 CommentsI think it''s getting about that time we pulled the reins in a little on this company. They are really starting to lean over the line on what a corporation should know about their customers personal affairs.
[Posted by spanki9 at 09:57 AM : May 20, 2008]
also little known is that they ''index'' the content of all the emails that pass thru their gmail (free email) service to both identify behaviour patterns about individuals ... and to specifically target google ads at you.
it''s an ''ad model'' where they make their revenue by knowing who you are ... and having the right contextual ad show on the screen for the right users of their ''free service''.
ingenious actually ... but very disturbing if enough of the sheep follow along without knowing what''s behind it all.
Also, I think most major insurers are making available online access to your healthcare accounts and claims if you choose to sign up for it.
Oh goody, that little paperclip assistant of theirs will be wearing a stethoscope now. I may not trust Google with my health data (maybe they could correlate that with all their records of all my searches to determine my exact mental illness!!)but I sure as he!! wouldn''t trust Miscreantsoft with it. This is a lame-a$$ idea that will hopefully soon go away.
Oh yeah, its SOOOO difficult to enter my height and weight into a form...
Oh yeah, right, we all know how "secure" web sites are, not a month doesnt go by the latest hack job, stolen database, stolen records, some employee selling data, someone losing a hard drive with 50,000 SS#''s and personal data all over it, the stuff never ends.
"By default, you are the only user who can view and edit your information.%u201D
LOL, how frucking naive do they think we are? thats like saying only YOU can view your password or know where you go on line- your ISP can too and anyone who works there can also access it.
"there is also the possibility that someone could break into your doctor%u2019s office to steal your records "
Oh yeah RIGHT like thats gonna happen, can picture the scenario now, 3 men dressed in black to hide under the cover of darkness, quietly break into your doctors office undetected, no alarms, no security, they bypass the cash drawer, the equipment, the computer, someone''s laptop, the safe and zero right in on the wall full of record shelves containing 30,000 manilla file folders A- Z they quickly grab armfulls of folders and toss them into their waiting van, working fast and furious, about 2 hours later they have the van pack to the roof with YOUR RECORDS and 29,999 other people''s
They attempt to sell them to a middleman for scrap a few days later, but scrap paper isnt worth much, so they try extracting valuable soy ink off the pages!
Naturally, repository press releases will be the last to rock the boat, or suggest an element of risk.
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See all 23 Comments