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Last week Google and Cleveland Clinic announced that they will be working together to give patients better access and flexibility to their health records. What an idea! People “in charge of their own health information.” Wow! Why did Google have to revolutionize this? Aren’t they just a search engine? Yes, they are a search engine, but they are quickly turning into the largest collection of all things on the web, and now not on the web. For instance, Google has worked with universities for the past couple of years to digitize entire libraries, and now they are digitizing health records.
Here is Google’s mission: Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
See more than a search engine. Google will continue to organize data yours and mine until they either run out of server space or things to index. This will be interesting to watch.
And this is why it is exciting:
By integrating with the Google platform, Cleveland Clinic is helping create national access to electronic medical records at no cost to the user or provider. The integration between the two systems will help deliver:
- National Access — A more efficient and effective healthcare system driven by a working interoperability model that moves electronic medical records from a closed model to one that is open and connected.
- Consumer Empowerment — A secure patient-centric, consumer-driven tool that will provide each consumer increased control of their medical care, without compromising their privacy. This will empower patients to actively manage their overall health.
- 24/7 Access/Portability — A web portal with 24/7 access, capable of providing the consumer with an opportunity to actively engage in their health care, heightening the importance of quality care and service by providers.
You can see the press release on the Cleveland Clinic web site.
Update:
The Health Care Blog has posted a great post on the Google and Cleveland Clinic discussion.
I am NOT saying that there shouldn’t be privacy protections and there is no reason in my mind why, for all HIPAA’s flaws, it cannot be extended to PHR providers as covered entities.
However, as far as I can tell nothing that is happening here violates HIPAA. Showing you keyword based advertising may not to everyone’s taste, but it does not mean your private health data is being transferred to anyone. And presumably your data will only end up in these services if you give them permission to accept it, which will include consent to provide whatever services and advertising you’ll see.
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
I am a medical doctor. I see patients every day. Including the Emergency Room where I work.
Because of that, I deeply understand, not only theoretically but as part of my daily experience that patient-physician relationship is the key for the quality of health-care.
A patient must trust his doctor. If there is no confidence, we lost a lot (patients and docs).
Saying that, privacy of data becomes a real importante issue. A patient that talks about his sexual activities, extramatrimonial affairs, fears, weakness, mental health… should be sure that the doctor will not reveal that information to third parties.
During thousands years physician have follow this hippocrates oath sencente: What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
So at the moment I designed the keyose (www.keyose.com) service, I have a very clear idea: privacy must be the priority number one!
Storing thousands of personal health records electronically has a big risk. What if someone unauthorized (a cracker for instance) access to the database? No matter how much money or effort you invest in the security of a system. There is no 100% secure system in the world. And the health information of thousand of people is very attractive to so many people (government, insurers, bank, private companies, criminals devoted to extortion…).
There are many companies entering the business of eHealth. Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault are just the two most known examples. As a medical doctor I am really concerned about the privacy of data. 90% of UK physicians and German doctors think like me.
Keyose was designed in such a way that no personal information is stored. We do not need your name, email or identity. And more importantly: We do not want it.
I would never put my personal, my patients or my relatives health information in a online database that contains the identity of the patients. You can trust me!
Dr. Julio Bonis
[...] Google and Cleveland Clinic Join Forces to Organize Your Health [...]
[...] MedTouch – More Starbucks, less Star Wars. Healthcare e-marketing advice beyond geekiness wrote this today. I think it is worth reading. Here is a little snippet:National Access — A more efficient and effective healthcare system driven by a working interoperability model that moves electronic medical records from a…By integrating with the Google platform, Cleveland Clinic is helping create national access to electronic medical records at no cost to the user or provider…. [...]