New York — Abiding by its mission to organize the world’s information, make it universally accessible, and baffle privacy advocates, Google Health on Wednesday introduced a new feature that allows patients share their electronic medical records with designated doctors, friends and family members or care providers who may be needed to help in emergencies.
Google said the decision to let people selectively allow others to glimpse medical profiles is in response to people’s concerns that caregivers and loved ones might not be up-to-date on all the details of a patient’s health situation, especially in the event of an emergency.
Sameer Samat, director of product management at Google, explained his personal reasons behind the new feature in a company blog post on Wednesday:
“Just a few years ago, my father suffered a minor heart attack and was sent to the ER. I arrived on the scene in a panic, and was asked what medications he was taking. To my surprise, I had no idea. If my father had a Google Health account, and had shared his profile with me, I would have been up-to-date on his current medications.”
“Another issue we hear regularly is that people want help coordinating their care and the care of loved ones,” wrote Samat in a message.
“They want the ability to share their medical records and personal health information with trusted family members, friends, and doctors in their care network.”
Google Health now has a “share this profile” feature that permits chosen people to view, but not alter, online medical records, Samat wrote.
Renewable links to health records are uniquely customized to each recipient and automatically expire after 30 days, according to Google.
“You can discontinue sharing it at any time, and you can always see who has access to your information,” Samat said.
“Those who are viewing your profile can only see the profile you share, not any other one in your account.”
The move has angered privacy advocates, which actually is not part of Google’s mission statement, though it has been a byproduct of the company’s efforts to organize information and make it accessible.
Lillie Coney, associate director with the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., sounds an alarm that the health information is very sensitive and that there could be unanticipated consequences to sharing health information outside of the health provider environment.
“People need to be very clear that once the information is shared, there may be other consequences,” she said. “Undoing the sharing may be more problematic than most people would think.”
She advises that by going ahead and making a controversial feature like this available, Google aims to normalize practices that now give people pause. “Google’s model is for access for information to be the norm,” she said.
Apart from the sharing feature, Google also included a graphing feature that allows people enter lab results and visually track trends in their medical test results, such as their cholesterol levels.
Benefits of electronic health records have been touted by US President Barack Obama and are believed by analysts to strongly appeal to “Baby Boomers” — the generation of Americans born between the late 1940s and early 1960s.
Microsoft rolled out a HealthVault online medical records storage and management service in October 2007.
Privacy advocates worry that online medical information is vulnerable to tampering or snooping, possibly from insurance companies or employers out to reduce liabilities by shunning those with health issues.
Google vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer said at the launch of Health that it was built with “our highest level of security.”
Google Health has links to pharmacies, clinics and diagnostic labs.
The service is free and enables people to access electronic copies of information such as prescriptions, lab test results, hospital stays, and medical conditions stored on Google computers.
Users concerned with privacy should also note that Google Health is not regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law designed to protect patients’ privacy. Google also admits that some employees will have access to users’ records.
“Within Google, only the people who are operating and improving Google Health have access to user information, and they are bound by strict policies to not disclose this information to others, either within Google or to the outside world,” Google said in a help page.