About time. I am sure Microsoft was getting lonely. The Health 2.0 blog points to a NY Times piece announcing the pilot of Google Health, via a collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic. The service, which will not be available to the general public, will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records which will then be retrievable via Google’s service.
The full launch of “Google Health” is some ways in the future, and I will reiterate that in this case, contrary to usual policy, Google is playing it very safe and conservatively. PHRs are risky business due to the potential regulatory implications, and this is uncharted territory for our favorite search giant. We’ll be watching where all this ends up. I am most curious about what the scope of the service will be and what kind of ownership and control people will have over their own data.
Oh yes .. and this is a very very important area for data portability.
UpdateThe Google blog adds some more insight. Google Health will use the GData protocol for information exchange and other existing standards (I presume at some point they will support HL7). The blog goes on to state (emphasis mine)
Cleveland is just the first of many healthcare providers that will securely send medical records and information via Google APIs at your request. We’ve been hard at work collaborating with a number of insurance plans, medical groups, pharmacies and hospitals. While this pilot is open initially to just a few thousand patients, I see it as an important first step to show how Google can help users get access to their medical records and take charge of their health information.
I re-iterate, I like the careful approach Google is taking, but the eventual success lies in open standards (especially given Microsoft’s announced intentions) and transparency at all points. A loss of trust and thing goes down the drain.
Google Health is right around the corner … sort of
About time. I am sure Microsoft was getting lonely. The Health 2.0 blog points to a NY Times piece announcing the pilot of Google Health, via a collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic. The service, which will not be available to the general public, will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records which will then be retrievable via Google’s service.
The full launch of “Google Health” is some ways in the future, and I will reiterate that in this case, contrary to usual policy, Google is playing it very safe and conservatively. PHRs are risky business due to the potential regulatory implications, and this is uncharted territory for our favorite search giant. We’ll be watching where all this ends up. I am most curious about what the scope of the service will be and what kind of ownership and control people will have over their own data.
Oh yes .. and this is a very very important area for data portability.
UpdateThe Google blog adds some more insight. Google Health will use the GData protocol for information exchange and other existing standards (I presume at some point they will support HL7). The blog goes on to state (emphasis mine)
I re-iterate, I like the careful approach Google is taking, but the eventual success lies in open standards (especially given Microsoft’s announced intentions) and transparency at all points. A loss of trust and thing goes down the drain.
Technorati Tags: Google Health