[Infowarrior] - Google ventures into health records biz

[Richard Forno]

Google ventures into health records biz


 
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/21/google.records.ap/index.html
 

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Google Inc. will begin storing the medical
records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service
that's likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive
information entrusted to the Internet search leader.

The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000
patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer
of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's
new service, which won't be open to the general public.

Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies
and medical histories, will be protected by a password that's also required
to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.

Google views its expansion into health records management as a logical
extension because its search engine already processes millions of requests
from people trying to find more information about an injury, illness or
recommended treatment.

But the health venture also will provide more fodder for privacy watchdogs
who believe Google already knows too much about the interests and habits of
its users as its computers log their search requests and store their e-mail
discussions.

Prodded by the criticism, Google last year introduced a new system that
purges people's search records after 18 months. In a show of its privacy
commitment, Google also successfully rebuffed the U.S. Justice Department's
demand to examine millions of its users' search requests in a court battle
two years ago.

The Mountain View, California-based company hasn't specified a timetable for
unveiling the health service, which has been the source of much speculation
for the past two years. Marissa Mayer, the Google executive overseeing the
health project, has previously said the service would debut in 2008.

Contacted Wednesday, a Google spokesman declined to elaborate on its plans.
The Associated Press learned about the pilot project from the Cleveland
Clinic, a not-for-profit medical center founded 87 years ago.

The clinic already keeps the personal health records of more than 120,000
patients on its own online service called MyChart. Patients who transfer the
information to Google would still be able to get the data quickly even if
they were no longer being treated by the Cleveland Clinic.

"We believe patients should be able to easily access and manage their own
health information," Mayer said in a statement supplied by the Cleveland
Clinic.

The Cleveland Clinic decided to work with Google "to create a more efficient
and effective national health care system," said C. Martin Harris, the
medical center's chief information officer.

Google isn't the first high-tech heavyweight to set up an online filing
cabinet in an effort make it easier for people to get their medical records
after they change doctors or health insurance plans.

Rival Microsoft Corp. last year introduced a similar service called
HealthVault, and AOL co-founder Steve Case is backing Revolution Health,
which also offers online tools for managing personal health histories.

The third-party services are troublesome because they aren't covered by the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, said Pam
Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, which just issued a
cautionary report on the topic.

Passed in 1996, HIPAA established strict standards that classify medical
information as a privileged communication between a doctor and patient.
Among other things, the law requires a doctor to notify a patient when
subpoenaed for a medical record.

That means a patient who agrees to transfer medical records to an external
health service run by Google or Microsoft could be unwittingly making it
easier for the government or some other legal adversary to obtain the
information, Dixon said.

If the medical records aren't protected by HIPAA, the information
conceivably also could be used for marketing purposes.

Google, which runs the Internet's most lucrative ad network, typically bases
its marketing messages on search requests and the content on Web pages and
e-mail contained in its computers.

It's not clear how Google intends to make money from its health service. The
company sometimes introduces new products without ads just to give people
more reason to visit its Web site, betting the increased traffic will boost
its profits in the long run.

All AboutGoogle Inc.
 
 
 
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/21/google.records.ap/index.html