Google Health: A Quick Hands-On Look

i’m allergic to entering extremely private information.

i would normally just see one doctor about it, but in this case i see a pair of docs.

bwahahahahaha hahahaha hahaha ow

Most of us were forced to accept the existing finical information reporting model. IMO, the protection offered by Google Health may be significantly weaker than that offered by finical reporting companies.

I guess I don’t see what the problem is. It’s not like Google is going to use this information to take over the world, seriously, they won’t. And it’s not like anyone can hack into Google’s system. Unless Google accidentally releases the information, I would think my medical information is safest in Google’s system.

I smell lawsuits left, right and center.

Personal Health Records, PHR’s, have been getting a fair amount of attention over the past few years. There is legislation requiring physicians to have all medical records available in an electronic format, Electronic Medical Records or EMR, by 2010. The big challenge is inter-operability in which physicians will be able to exchange data with patients so that patients can maintain their own PHR PURL. This is awesome for data portability, i.e. having your medical data available on a PURL and/or handheld when traveling rather than having to fill out ridiculous medical forms. This is all great in theory, but we are years if not decades away from consumer adoption and sufficient standards for nomenclature and fields used for medical data. I have learned much about this over the past year in a stealth start up I just put on the shelf w too many landmines and resistance. It will happen some day, just not soon.

This is actually very interesting. I am very interested in this type of technology as biomedical is growing fast.

Hi, Erick - Nice overview. Although, I did have a question. What was meant by:

“(Revolution Health is more of an information portal at this point, and who is going to trust their health insurance company?).”

Revolution Health isn’t an insurance company, and the insurance aspect of their site seems strictly informational (albeit, poorly designed).

As for Google Health, it doesn’t seem particularly interesting yet. Using it feels as though I’m entering data straight into the Googleplex for them do whatever adds value for them, and I’m not really seeing any particular value for myself. Also, the site seems purely reactive around conditions, and doesn’t really seem set up to have any kind of diagnosis or informational content to let me know if I may have a condition, or how to understand my treatment options.

There’s a lot of simple niceties in the app, but I’m actually surprised this has taken Google 2 or 3 years to launch.

Expect to see some collaboration with 23andMe, the genetic testing company partially backed by Google.

Interesting idea hopefully it will work in a long run.

Nat
http://www.workersinc.com

I created an account, but they might want to add ‘hispanic’ or ‘latino’ to the Profile Details.

#8 It´s been a while since we don´t hear about 23andMe. It would be nice to have an update.

somehow my google checkout account got hacked and they freaking charged money on my cc. Yes i have antivirus, antispam, firewall etc etc etc but somehow the account got hacked. Just imagine adding personal info to Google health and having your account hacked. I am done sharing my personal info online.

Yeah, um…. no.
Let’s see:

gmail - you know who I communicate with, and have a rough outline of what’s going on in my life
calendar - you know where I am and what I’m doing
finance - you know where I invest my money
maps - you know where I travel to and from
shopping/checkout - you know what I spend my money on
blogger - you know my political views and general opinion on everything
youtube - you’ve got my home movies
search/toolbar - you know what I search for and what I’m reading about
reader - you know what I find important enough to subscribe to

I don’t use all of those services …. but if I did, all of that would be true. I think I’ll draw the line at my medical records.

This is not exactly what I expected but the first step I believe.
I look forward to using this technology. What I would have liked is Google putting together a software where they could understand uploaded document and update the data in their system.

#14 sambas - I doubt even Google could come up with an OCR system good enough to decipher a doctor’s handwriting!

They seem to be very focused on security - not privacy - and there is a difference. If an insurance company or the government compels them to give information about users, will they fight to protect users?
What if you live in India….?

Anyone who is stupid enough to put their medical records on a site that is accessible over the Internet deserves whatever they get. One only has to remember ChoicePoint…who had the upmost in security systems…so they thought.

One last thing to remember…if you have health insurance and your prescriptions are covered…the insurance company can glean what possible medical problems you have by what medicines you are taking. I told Walgreens not to bill my insurance company for a diabetic medication I was taking…guess what, they did….do you think that has triggered a pre-exsisting condition notice??? I’ll be lucky to get any type of medical coverage.

Don’t do it…no matter how tempting they make it. Google is a public company who’s share price could become tempting M&A bait for any less credible company.

I’m surprised that Google claims that HIPPA doesn’t apply to Google Health. If Google was really serious about keeping your information private, they would go with HIPPA. The fact that they’re pointing out that HIPPA doesn’t apply to them suggest that they’re keeping their options open regarding privacy. Not comforting.

An API is in the works? Great, now the Slides of the world can build apps and allow people to throw sheep at each other’s health records.

I don’t get it. We have online banking, yet no one is scared. They’re secure. And they don’t offer that much privacy. I mean, are we scared that some insurance agency will find out how much money we make and extort us for more? No.

It is not that great as I had expected it to be. Anyways Google has to work more on this to make it killer.

I think much of this comment is missing a fairly fundamental point.

The services Google currently provides free to non corporate user are under very one sided terms of use agreements. How many of us notice the Beta sticker under the Gmail banner when we log in. Essentially these services could be completely removed tomorrow and you have no recourse.

Much work needs to be done by Google on changing the experimental nature of their services into something that can stand behind commerical grade agreements with some user protection.

When we work online with a bank we are under the protection of our commercial agreement with them as account holders. This is largely missing in the current google model.

When we use a service for no charge we should not be shy about demanding a level of service. We are required for Google’s business model to work. Our investment is the time we spend in front of their profitable advertising and the faith we put into their offerings.

Most of us see the service levels in terms of functionality, but an orthogonal dimension of service level exists in data protection that has not been under much scrutiny to date.

I hope the new e-health offerings will start to bring this dimension to the fore and make it a buying, or is that just adopting, decision criteria.

You want to know what I think? I think they’re solving the wrong problem.

#20: Banks are governed by a different set of stringent rules, most are FDIC-insured and require encryption at various levels. It is a real hassle to try and change your password with banks as they put you through a series of verification tests, or so I have experience on more than one occasion when I forgot my password, or inadvertently locked my account. If something happens to my bank account, there is legal recourse.

If something happens to my Google Health information, it is not protected under HIPPA (at least not yet, and doubtful it ever will be), so if required by law, Google will share my information with or without my knowledge. That means I have no legal recourse to challenge the subpoena, assuming I even know about it.

Google has some big challenges ahead of itself with Google Health, and it seems to be banking on the fact that it is a trusted name and brand so no one will think twice about using the service. As recent events have demonstrated, even the most careful company is not immune to data breaches, or slips of keystrokes.

So, does it allow you to upload your 23andMe results, and integrate them with your “phenotype”?

I wish deCODEme would establish a similar phenotype-service.

I think, as of now, the problem is that many physicians do not give patients copies of their medical records!!!

Your screenshot of the sciatica information is a good example of their use of A.D.A.M. health information and images. A.D.A.M. provides the causes, symptom, treatment info etc.

#23 - right on - but only one of the SEVERAL reasons this is the wrong problem

First off - why is anyone doing this? Because they don’t trust their insurer. Why don’t they trust the insurer? Because they are greedy ^%$% who aren’t actually interested in your health but in getting your money. So really we should be fixing the health insurance problem. That’s one reason - (and the main one and nothing will be solved until it is fixed).

Second - they don’t trust the healthcare provider - why not? This is more complex - but it boils down to the healthcare provider needing to meet so much regulation that they can barely function simultaneously meeting government regulation and insurance demands. In fact, with the combination of government regulation in the form of HIPPA and the rise in decent medical records systems, this is probably a false concern. Your healthcare provider after all needs to have you medical records to do a decent job. The actual problem is that it may be too hard or even impossible to give them to YOU because of records and other systems.

Third - as pointed out by #23 - you really want YOU to have the records - not a ’safe’ third party.

Fourth - the quality of the information that is on Google Health is so low - like much of the medical information on the internet - that I certainly wouldn’t trust it. Obviously this will improve. Google is big enough to eventually start getting it right, but it is STILL the wrong problem. When you have a healthcare problem you should go TALK to and physically be in front of a healthcare professional. THey NEED to see you and you should WANT to see them.

Google would be better off building a health system that works INSIDE the healthcare system.

Tech is not the answer to everything. After 20 years in the US - married to a physician no less - I have yet to experience healthcare one quarter as good as growing up in England under the old, unreconstructed NHS. No paperwork. No fees. No lies. Free medicines. No waits (OK - once I had to wait ten minutes). And the cost was an 11% payroll tax (with an upper limit cap) - that also got me a pension when I retired. And there wasn’t much technology involved.

#27 - I ONLY trust “greedy” companies that are after my money. Companies, unlike government, are not allowed the luxury of coercion, so terms must be mutually agreeable. With “greedy” companies, I have the privilege of voluntary cooperation, and the deal must be mutually beneficial, or it will not take place. Any hints of fraud or corruption threaten their competitiveness and thus their ability to survive.

With well-intentioned government policies and their resulting bureaucracies, fraud and inefficiency is par for the course, because participation is mandatory and lack of cooperation is punishable.

Allergies–Suggestion for improvement.
Do they have an MD helping to develop this? In trying to input information about me, I noted there was no button for “NKDA”, which means “No Known Drug Allergies”. This should be front and center so that users can actively put it in, acknowledging their NKDA status rather than leaving Allergies blank, which may just mean the user did not fill it out.

When you search for NKDA in the alphabetized list, it is there–but when you add it to your profile it shows “NKDA–Severe”. I have a severe allergy to No Known Drug Allergies? Come on, guys.

I don’t get what the fuss is over HIPPA. Most of it is absolutely trash.

A teacher that doesn’t know her child has HIV (god forbid) is unlikely to rush to cover one’s blood when cut or something to protect all the other ones.

People are acting like HIPPA is the end-all-be-all. It’s not.

Further, I still agree that they’re solving the wrong problem. However, people overreacting about a third party having your medical records is what the issue is. And further, what are the third party and potential hackers, going to do with such information? Sell it? What value does it have?

#24 -

So, really, all you are really getting at is the Government oversees it.

You think changing passwords is that hard? No, it’s not. Maybe all banks aren’t like mine but once logged in, it’s 1-2-3. Am I scared? Nope.

All for free, but do those exclude the use of anonymous clinical data to be used by google? What would a long life pool of clinical data combined with 23andMe results be worth?

This is very exciting. Makes me wish I was already through med school. This will become an incredible platform for the healthcare community.

It probably doesn’t need to be said, but I have a strong feeling it will make everyone forget about HealthVault very quickly…

#28

all very nice theory - in practice of course it is the exact opposite of what you describe. Not sure where you get the idea that companies are not ‘allowed’ the luxury of coercion. The coercion is still happening, allowed or no.

You know - take my money for five years then deny my coverage arbitrarily and hold the legal process up until I die from the coverage not being provided. That works out very well for me, doesn’t it.

Your approach also very effectively explains why we have private police and fire services across this nation - the other area where life is threatened and time is of the essence. Oh, wait….

It also explains why the majority of democracies in the world DO have some form of centralized healthcare…

While the free market may work for many things, only the blinkered believe it works for everything.

Adding medical test results is nearly impossible, as we ordinary patients cannot translate even simple CBC test data into the choice of tests offered.

Lab reports are the bulk of medical records, as are a transcript of your doctor’s notes.

Neither can be readily loaded into Google system.

I have both, tried to enter such records, even with fairly good knowledge of the meaning of such information. Even a simple process to load a scanned copy of such records would be a huge improvement.

“One last thing to remember…if you have health insurance and your prescriptions are covered…the insurance company can glean what possible medical problems you have by what medicines you are taking. I told Walgreens not to bill my insurance company for a diabetic medication I was taking…guess what, they did….do you think that has triggered a pre-exsisting condition notice??? I’ll be lucky to get any type of medical coverage.”

You are not required to sign the the pharmacy “authorization”, or whatever they call it if you are paying cash. And often it is same/less $$ to not claim against RX benefits. Pharmacy personnel may not know how to complete transactions - and tell you “oh, you must sign” but refuse to sign “auth. to transmit into to 3rd parties: THAT IS what auth says. And there is NO LAW that says you must authorize such transmittal of your private information to 3rd parites in order to receive a perscription medicine..

As a family doctor I am really concerned about the privacy threats of the Personal Health Records.

I led a PHR project: http://www.keyose.com/

It is the first totally anonymous personal health record. No name, no email or other identification data required.

You may take a look…

“Confessors will not ask your name. Why do we?”

Google amaze all the world, as always.

Boy, this is some high-class site

Thanks for the information on Google Health.

We recently wrote an article (http://brainblogger.com/2008/06/07/drugs-and-pharmacology-eight-edition//) on drugs and pharmacology news on (http://brainblogger.com/) All the latest health concerns in drugs and phamacology are brought to light. From anti-depressants and natural sleeping aids and their efficiency to the rise in tooth decay in children and whether fluoride supplementation is the answer.

We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Kelly

Skip the “Brainbloggerc.om” suggestion by Kelly–that’s someone trying to promote an amatuerish blog for profit (advertising)…the content is without substance… TechCrunch should remover the 6/9 post. My2cents

i can’t make up my mind if this is a good or a bad thing….

The idea is very interesting. It helps the non natives of America to explore nearest doctors easily. I hope it will serve more countries in the nearest future…