Google Health Joins Microsoft HealthVault

With the release of Google Health will come, I expect, another round of privacy paranoia. I wrote about this before, when Microsoft's HealthVault appeared. Both services are voluntary but it doesn't take much insight to recognize that before long, you won't have a choice. Your medical records will be consolidated and networked and if you want health care, you will be in the databases — just as you are if you drive a car, use a credit card, or have a job.

It is perhaps unnerving that the institutions that are rushing forward to fill the need are companies committed to cataloging and sharing information. But I think that's a good thing: These companies have a lot to lose if any of the information escapes.

Regardless of who does it, there is an urgent need. Health care makes poor use of information technology now, way behind other industries. There are great benefits in economy, efficiency, quality of medical service — and privacy. Consolidated records are safer. Most of us now have dozens of records, all different, under poor control, in each doctor's office, hospital, diagnostic lab, or pharmacy. Few of us even know where all our records are. I think this is a boon and it's been a long time coming. 

Comments

[Scott Smith]

I noticed your article about Personal Health Records and Google Health (we were part of their launch). As a freelance journalist, I started writing about these a couple of years ago and was so impressed by one of them, MyMedicalRecords.com, that I recently joined to company to handle its media relations. I believe this company has provided the best solutions to concerns about privacy and security. You may find this of interest for future articles.

Contrasting MMR to other companies in the PHR space, MMR delivers the most user-friendly, convenient and versatile web-based personal health record available today. Using proprietary patent pending technologies, complete patient information including actual lab test results, radiology reports and images, progress notes and all of a patient’s charts can be faxed, voiced or uploaded into the user’s password-secured account. Users do not need to install any special software or use any special hardware to use our service.

MMR also has integrated other advanced features, such as multilingual translation, a drug interaction database of more than 20,000 medications, calendaring for prescription refills and doctor appointments, and private voicemail for a doctor’s message and other personal uses.

There also is a special “Emergency Log-In” feature that allows a doctor to access a user’s account to view their most important medical information in the event of a medical emergency. To ensure individual privacy, specific data, such as prescriptions, allergies, blood type and copies of actual medical files or images, are pre-selected by the user for inclusion in the online read-only Emergency Folder. The site has been repeatedly tested to be sure no unauthorized person can break into any account.

In addition, MMR also includes an online ESafeDeposit Box feature that enables users to securely store any important document in a virtual “lock box” and access them anytime from anywhere using an Internet-connected computer or PDA. These documents can include advanced directives, wills, insurance policies, birth certificates, photos of Family, pets and property, and more. MMR is clearly one of the most complete user-friendly personal health records available today. I can provide you with more extensive information how MMR compares with other products on the market.

Incidentally, when Google Health was launched on May 19, MMR was included as an integrated service on its platform. This will enable users to move information from their Google Health account to their MyMedicalRecords account and vice versa. This will enhance the Google Health user experience by allowing the individual to store documents, images, and other personal information in MMR’s easy-to-use personal health record and will have the benefit of all the additional features MMR has that are not available directly within Google Health.

I would encourage you to visit MMR and join with a complimentary membership. Simply go to www.mymedicalrecords.com and sign up using registration code MMRMEDIA. I believe you will impressed with how comprehensive and easy-to-use it is. I will contact you after you have had a chance to experience the service with the hope that you will include us in any further discussions of the subject.

Sincerely,

Scott S. Smith
Director of Public Relations
MyMedicalRecords.com
10100 Santa Monica Blvd. #430
Los Angeles CA 90067
Ext 123 (Cell: 310/254-4051)
ssmith@mmrmail.com

Encl.

[Moe Rubenzahl]

Hello, Scott. Are you advertising on my blog? That will be $999.95, please.

Just kidding. I checked it out, as this is an interesting area to me. It will be interesting to see if your company can succeed as a paid service against the two free behemoths.

Off the bat, I would point out one key advantage your competitors have is their partnerships with health providers. I was able to load all my Rx's into Google Health from my drugstore; for your service, I will have to do some typing. Few customers will be as organized and diligent enough to maintain their own records. I think partnerships will be crucial in this business. I am sure that is not news to you.

Doctor partnerships are another obvious need -- I don't know about you but I hate filling in the same data for every doctor I see. And I know that my records at Doctor X don't match what Doctor Y has. All that data, all wrong, all out of my control.

One area where all three services fall short is in portability. What I would really like is the ability to have my medical records on my handheld (Treo, Blackberry, whatever).

-- Moe