San Francisco — Back in February, Google announced an ambitious pilot project called Google Health, a long-anticipated U.S. health information service along with the Cleveland Clinic to provide hundreds of clinic patients with tools to collect; manage and store personal health records online.
“Like various other Google’s new services, Google Health is in beta; although officials said anyone can sign up for it and start entering their health data.”
The new service allows users to build an electronic health profile by collecting medical records imported from organizations such as pharmacies and lab testing companies. Information can also be entered by users manually. They can then choose to share that information with their doctors and other providers and use a range of online tools to do things such as track the risk of a heart attack or connect to a specialist for a second opinion.
“Google Health is all about accumulating documents from your doctor’s office, labs and pharmacies to provide a holistic picture of your health,” said Google Vice President Marissa Mayer, who was joined by health industry professionals to launch the project at a press conference at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.
“Though concerns about privacy and security are seen as a big hurdle.”
Google assures it will store health data in servers that are more secure than those it uses for other services. Consumers will be able to decide who has access to their records and to revoke that access at any time, Mayer said.
Users can reach the password-protected service at: www.google.com/health and create profiles that include basic medical information such as existing medical conditions, allergies and any medicines being taken, Google officials said.
Nevertheless, the unending privacy concern calls for yet another battle line between Internet search king Google and global software giant Microsoft, which began offering a similar HealthVault service in October.
Google said it has constructed a well protected computer platform apart from its search system to host medical records as part of an emphasis on keeping the health information secure.
“We have put in place the firmest privacy policy we can construct,” Mayer told reporters at the Internet giant’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.
“It is our highest level of security.”
Privacy activists however, ask for proof that online medical information will be safe from tampering or snooping, possibly from insurance companies or employers out to reduce liabilities by shunning those with health issues.
“It is the Wild West online,” said Deborah Peel, a psychiatrist who founded the nonprofit advocacy group PatientPrivacyRights.org. “The risks are massive.”
She said Microsoft consulted her group while designing HealthVault and agreed to routine privacy audits, the first of which is to be completed in June.
People who have signed up at Google Health can also import medical records from U.S. pharmacies and medical facilities that have signed on as partners.
Other outstanding feature includes a link to help users find doctors by location or specialization. The “virtual pillbox” notifies patients when they need to take medications and warns of potential drug interactions.
“The service includes links to major U.S. pharmacies, doctors’ groups and medical testing labs.”
Partners include Walgreen Co, Longs Drugs Stores Corp, CVS Caremark Group, AllScripts, Quest Diagnostics and the Cleveland Clinic. The company had previously said it was working with health insurers such as Aetna Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc pharmacies.
Google is one of the many groups trying to “change” health care by allowing people to access and take control of their health records. Others include Microsoft, which announced its HealthVault initiative last year, WebMD and Revolution Health Group, founded by AOL cofounder Steve Case.
Google executives said immeasurable efforts were taken to build a system that will protect people’s medical records while providing them access from wherever they might want it.
“No Google Health users should expect to find their health information as search results on Google,” product manager Roni Zeiger said.
The service is free and empowers consumers to have digital copies of data such as prescriptions, lab test results, hospital stays, and medical conditions stored on Google computers.
“Users of the service dictate how the information is shared.”
“Google, on your behalf, is maintaining a copy of your records,” Zeiger said. “This is a user controlled database that Google is hosting.”
Mayer contended that it makes sense for Google to take on such a project because two thirds of Internet users rely on Google for searching the Web about a drug or illness.
However, Google Health still has a long way to go, she acknowledged. “There are thousands of partnerships that need to be formed and petabytes of information that needs to be brought online and put into the hands of the patient,” she said.
Google said the company would not sell advertisements against the service for now but has not ruled it out for the future. Asked how it will make money, Google sees the service as a way to increase the overall value of its services.
In the meantime, the company hopes the service will help business by driving users to its search results and search advertising. There will be a search box on each page of Google Health that takes people to Google’s usual results pages that do include advertisements.
Google launched a pilot of Google Health in February with the Cleveland Clinic, for between 1,500 and 10,000 participants. The original driving force for Google Health, Adam Bosworth, left the company last September. Mayer has been running the project until a permanent replacement is found.