Review of Google Health

In February, the Google Blog announced Google's partnership with the Cleveland Clinic to test a new resource for health care service consumers. On Monday, Google Health went live. Although the list of partners is still limited, Google hopes to see success with the launch that will lead to more partners.

Google Health is a personal health record that will be accessible anywhere with internet access. Since it is a personal record, the user may choose which information to share and whether or not to link to pharmacies or doctor's offices. While some critics, such as David P. Hamilton of VentureBeat, fear that giving consumers that much control over their records may compromise their validity, Google feels that it is vital to give patients a choice in how much they share on Google Health.

Google Health is a free service, and available to all Google members. Google users can enter in medical profile fields such as: Age, Height, Weight, Health Conditions, Allergies and Current Medications. If the patient has a big list of medications or conditions, there is an option to import their medical records by linking their profile to participating Pharmacies and Hospitals. Google Health also has a feature that will allow users to store their doctor's contact information in their profile. If patients wish to release their information to third party sites, Google Health can link with several that allow patient's to explore more options with their health.

I accessed my Google account in order to try the new Google Health service. The user interface is easy to understand and easy to use. No fields in the profile screen are required, so I had control over how much information I wanted to share. My pharmacy happens to be partnered with Google Health, so I imported my records. This involved going to my pharmacy website and logging in. The user agreement allowed me to specify how long to grant Google Health access to my records. It also specified that the agreement would be terminated upon closing my Google account. There were several affiliate sites available to share information with, but I decided against investigating those. Although Google has gained a reputation for security, it is clearly stated in the user agreement that third party sites are not bound by Google rules.

My years of experience as a pharmacy technician gave me an insight to the dire need to centralize patient records. Sadly, many patients can't remember exactly what conditions they have and which medications they take. Having a centralized and organized record of health can be very beneficial to patients, particularly those who travel often or have several doctors or pharmacies.

Many patients may be concerned about the safety of their information. There may be concerns over what would happen if information was stolen or misused. Vince Kuraitis of e-CareManagement wrote an essay almost a year ago speculating the pros and cons of a site like Google Health.

Although there are concerns about the "Big Brother" aspect of centralized health records, it is important to remember that Google Health is currently just a personal health record, and completely voluntary. The future is coming, and it is likely that Google Health will be there.

Marissa Mayer, "A Peek into Our Search Factory", Official Google Blog
Marissa Mayer, "Google Health - a first look", Official Google Blog
Alan Newberger, "A pilot with the Cleveland Clinic for health information access", Official Google Blog
David P. Hamilton, "Google Health's Cleveland pilot program - and the nagging questions it doesn't come close to answering", VentureBeat
"Google Health FAQ's", Google Health
Vince Kuraitis, "Connecting the dots...Google Health Promised to Create AND Dominate Next Generation PHRs", e-CareManagement Blog