Google gets its hands on health records
Date : 02 21 2008 Category : TechnologyClement James, vnunet.com, Friday 22 February 2008 at 00:00:00
Web giant offers 'patient-centric' access to health records
Academic medical institution, Cleveland Clinic has announced a collaboration with Google to pilot a new health offering from the web giant. The pilot, an invitation-only opportunity, will enroll between 1,500 and 10,000 patients. It will test secure exchange of patient medical record data such as prescriptions, conditions and allergies between the Cleveland Clinic and a secure Google patient profile. The ultimate goal of this patient-centered model is to give patients the ability to interact with multiple physicians, healthcare service providers and pharmacies. "Patients are more proactively managing their own healthcare information," said Martin Harris, chief information officer, at Cleveland Clinic. "This collaboration is intended to help Google test features and services that will ultimately allow all Americans (as patients) to direct the exchange of their medical information between their various providers without compromising their privacy." The pilot will eventually extend Cleveland Clinic's online patient services to a broader audience while enabling the portability of patient data so patients can take their data with them wherever they go-even outside the Cleveland Clinic Health System. "We believe patients should be able to easily access and manage their own health information," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of Search Products and User Experience and Google.

