• Home
• Health & Wellness Articles
• Health News
• Health Videos
• Store
• About
• Archive

Subscribe

Google launches Google Health

 Print This Article    Email this Article   Listen to this Article (MP3)

The Internet’s leading search firm, Google, has become a depository for Web search, email, photos and videos, and now the search giant wants something much more personal: your health records. After a year and a half since the first announcement, Google finally launched its much talked about Google Health.

Google launched the service as a way for patients to easily coordinate and manage health information. Google said it believes patients should control and own their own health information, and should be able to do so easily. Currently, privacy laws that were designed to protect people’s privacy have created a situation where sharing medical data is difficult. Experts believe such sharing of data could reduce health care costs because providers will have a total picture of a patient and would not need to repeat tests.

According to Google, here’s what you can do:

create a health profile with information about your health conditions, medications, allergies

import medical records from US hospitals that use Google’s APIs to make the conversion possible. Unfortunately, the list of partners is almost empty at this time. This will probably change as providers assess their liability.

read medical resources, information about diseases

find a doctor using Google Local Search

use other health services that integrate with Google Health and can can import your data securely and use it for different purposes: calculate the heart attack risk, print your health history or share it with doctors. According to the FAQ, “Google Health is a PHR (Personal Health Record), but it is also a bit of a different model. We believe it’s not enough to offer a place where you can store, manage, and share your health information. You need to act on your health information to better manage your health needs on a daily basis. This is why we provide a directory of online health services to you. You must elect to sign up with a service and decide what level of personal data you want to share in exchange for the customized services those companies offer.”

Google Health wants to become the central place where you organize your health information and share it with people or services you trust. Since this information is very sensitive, Google takes a lot of precautions by using SSL connections and a separate privacy policy that clearly states: “You control who can access your personal health information. By default, you are the only user who can view and edit your information. If you choose to, you can share your information with others.”

This is a big test of trust for Google and probably the most personal service ever offered by the company. While you can also enter your credit card information in Google Checkout, your location in iGoogle or Google Maps, personal information in orkut, Blogger and YouTube, Google Health is about your existence.

“Health information is very fragmented today, and we think we can help. Google believes the Internet can help users get access to their health information and help people make more empowered and informed health decisions. People already come to Google to search for health information, so we are a natural starting point,” says Google.

This new business venture holds enormous opportunity for Google, but does not come without risk. Privacy experts, no doubt, will begin weighing in on privacy concerns and potential abuses of such an online centralized database.

Source: Google

Comments

Copyright © 2008 Treasure Life Media · All Rights Reserved · Login · Health & Wellness Articles · Health News · Health Videos