Google Health Records

Associated Press reporting

Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that's likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.

The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service, which won't be open to the general public.

Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that's also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.

...

Contacted Wednesday, a Google spokesman declined to elaborate on its plans. The Associated Press learned about the pilot project from the Cleveland Clinic, a not-for-profit medical centre founded 87 years ago.

The clinic already keeps the personal health records of more than 120,000 patients on its own online service called MyChart. Patients who transfer the information to Google would still be able to get the data quickly even if they were no longer being treated by the Cleveland Clinic.

Globe and Mail - AP - Google to store health records - February 21, 2008

Also reported by the New York Times - Google Health Begins Its Preseason at Cleveland Clinic.

In case you're wondering where you've seen MyChart before, it was mentioned in the Health Infoway EHR posting I did.

Personally, no way no how do I want my health records going anywhere near Google, Microsoft, or any other giant online corporation.

Previously:
April 04, 2007  Google ponders health information

Comments

[Deepak]

Richard,

But anyone who's been in a clinical study already has their medical info and then some in an EMR that pharma has access to. Plus the government has access to health record in many cases. So why not Google? Not saying I'd do it, but the logic seems somewhat flawed. I actually trust my hospital less. Their IT infrastructure is probably not as good, too many people who don't know what they're doing have access, etc etc.