Google Health – What’s Different?

Hard on the heels of the announcement of Microsoft Vault we have the following announcement at the HIMSS conference.

Google CEO unveils Google Health

28 Feb 2008

The veil came off the world’s worst-kept secret in healthcare IT Thursday, as Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt announced the beta release of Google Health at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference in Orlando, Florida.

For now, the product is limited to the US market, though Alfred Spector, Google vice president of research and special initiatives said the California-based company has “started making contacts” with health authorities and potential business partners in unspecified international markets.

Google are not commenting publicly on potential business partners, but Schmidt addressed the issue in a press conference following his keynote address to the HIMSS conference.

“One of my regrets is we’re launching a US-only product, and the decision is a legal one,” Schmidt said. He noted that most health systems in Europe and elsewhere are run by governments, and thus a Google product would require government approval in those locations.

Continue Reading Here:

http://ehealtheurope.net/news/3515/google_ceo_unveils_google_health

More detail is provided in an interview with the Google CEO – Eric Schmidt.

Google Health Won't Have Ads

By TRAVIS REED – 2 days ago

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Google Inc. won't sell ads to support a new Internet service that stores personal medical information, CEO Eric Schmidt said Thursday in the search giant's first detailed comments about a venture that has raised privacy concerns.

Schmidt described Google Health as a platform for users to manage their own records, such as medical test results and prescriptions. It would be accessed with a user name and password, just like a Google e-mail account, and could be called up on any computer with an Internet connection.

A primary benefit, Schmidt said, is the portability of records from one health care provider to the next. He repeatedly said no data would be shared without the consumer's consent.

"Our model is that the owner of the data has control over who can see it," Schmidt said at the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. "And trust, for Google, is the most important currency on the Internet."

The service is not yet available publicly, but Schmidt said it will be an open system where third parties can build direct-to-consumer services like medication tables or immunization reminders. Google intends to profit by increasing traffic to its search site — the same approach it used with the ad-free Google News section.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company isn't the only one vying for the personal health record market. Microsoft Corp. last year introduced a service called HealthVault, and AOL co-founder Steve Case is backing Revolution Health, which offers similar online tools.

Microsoft's service has ads, but they aren't personalized based on health records or searches. Revolution Health does not have ads on its health records service.

Google has raised privacy concerns in other areas by tailoring ads based on search requests, and its e-mail service scans the text of messages to flash pitches from businesses that seem to offer corresponding products or services.

The bigger problem with these online health systems, privacy advocates say, is that they aren't covered by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly called HIPAA. The 1996 privacy law requires patient notification when their records are being subpoenaed, among other things.

"Once you take sensitive health care information outside of the health care sector, it loses important protections that people have come to expect," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the nonprofit World Privacy Forum. "Your physician has taken a Hippocratic Oath, and they are bound to have your best interests in mind. A publicly traded company is supposed to have shareholders in mind first."

Dixon said even the issue of consenting online to the release of information is muddy.

Continue reading here:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iSiytvdRjss9I7Yq3uCwrwttbQxQD8V3J0380

Interestingly there has also been some unease expressed about what Google is up to in the space:

The Google backlash at HIMSS

Posted by Dana Blankenhorn @ 6:29 am

The gang at Modern Healthcare Online detected a notable backlash against Google during this week’s HIMSS show.

There was a “Little Red Hen” feeling about the complaints, an impression that hospitals have spent 40 years preparing this automation bill of fare but now the Googlers were going to swoop in and eat it.

Microsoft also came in for criticism, for similar reasons, although the story made clear this is less-justified. After all, Microsoft has done its homework in the space, made strategic acquisitions, and had CEO Steve Ballmer keynote last year.

I have to wonder, however, how much of this is real, and how much of this is the creation of mainstream vendors like Cerner, which were totally unprepared to handle new demands for open standards and interoperability.

One of my own favorite talking points, while attending the show, was to point out how the Cerner booth was mainly a vast expanse of empty carpet. (Cerner is the gold swath on the left in the picture above, which admittedly was taken when the show floor was closed.)

Continue reading here:

http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=754

The concerns regarding this initiative are all the usual ones related to health information privacy and so on but with Google ruling out the use of advertisements and implementing a strict security and privacy regime much of these concerns should be allayed.

Much more interesting is Google’s attempt to deploy open standards to enable interoperation between their PHR and HealthCare Providers who hold information the patient might wish to add to their record. This is a very smart move in my view.

Equally smart is the plan to enable third party value-added providers who use the appropriate standards to effectively interoperate with Google’s record. This could spur all sorts of interesting innovation.

All in all an interesting move is this increasingly active space.

David.