NYT Google and Microsoft's move into health care
Today's New York Times has an article about Google and Microsoft and their planned move into the health care arena.And no, they're not going to do this by paying for our doctor visits. Their approach is really all about empowering us to take more control over our own health. They'll do this with a combination of better search tools (like my own Diabetes Search Engine that's built with Google technology) and enabling us to maintain personal health records (PHR).
Now Electronic Health Records (EHR) or Medical records (EMR) are nothing new. There are several versions of these around provided by different companies. I believe the question will be whether Microsoft and Google can work together to develop a standard for PHRs. That would be a trick worth watching.
Right now the Google version has only been shown to a small number of people. The Google Blogoscoped site has shots of some of the screens from the Google system.
From the NYT article is sounds like Google is trying to do the 'right thing'
At Google, we feel patients should be in charge of their health information, and they should be able to grant their health care providers, family members, or whomever they choose, access to this information. Google Health was developed to meet this need.I'm just wondering when they actually start working with real patients as they evolve this system.
Watch this space for more details.
Labels: Google, healthcare, microsoft, PHR, search
posted by Bernard @ 10:04 PM
5 Comments:
I'd have a lot more respect for Google entering the lucrative health market if they weren't already profiting so heavily from the slimy bottom feeder companies who display their lying loathsome ads on health sites that host Google Ads. You know, like the one that promises to get 65% of type 1s off inxulin.
When I protested about that ad and others, Google staff responded with softsoap form letters and of course those ads are still running. No one makes a cent unless folks click through, and you know they do. The more desperate and ignorant, the more likely they are to buy the crap these evildoers are selling. I hear from victims from time to time.
Clearly then Google don't give a hoot if their advertisers harm people with chronic disease.
Since their main goal since going public is to make more and more money (forget "don't be evil!") my hopes aren't high that this latest development is good for patients, not their bottom line.
There is just so much money to be made from pushing hope on people with incurable diseases!
Whether Google can "do the right thing" depends, to a large extent, on their ability to manage healthcare records while maintaining a patient's right to privacy. It sounds nice to make such claims, but the real culprit is HIPAA, which grants thousands of people (many located outside the U.S.) access to your healthcare records as "covered entities" necessary for billing and coding among other things.
It was revealed earlier this year that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was woefully behind and had made only marginal investments in outlining procedures for dispute resolutions. Now just imagine that someone steals your medical identity and has surgery under your name. While the Federal reserve and other regulators (OCC, FDIC, FTC, etc.) have specific rules for resolving financial disputes, presently there is absolutely nothing governing your medical records, including a means to resolve records that become mixed with another persons' as a result of identity theft. You're on your own, baby! Pushing to make electronic medical records doesn't even address this issue.
This goes well beyond technology -- the very core issue is that government has been asleep at the switch for so long regarding healthcare they don't know where to begin.
As a 20-year veteran of healthcare IT and a 30-something veteran of Type 1 diabetes, I have to point out some flaws popular perception of PHRs. First, the idea that I could actually have a digital version of all the things I want my providers to know thrills me -- but some operational aspects cast a cloud of doubt over that proposition. First and perhaps foremost, is the issue of whether such patient-supplied information is actionable.
The rules of health information management are arcane, and the implications can be dire. The record said X and if the provider had known, she wouldn't have prescribed medication Y. How much can she trust the truth of the record? On this question hangs thousands of malpractice lawsuits.
Generally, patient-provided information, while it has a place, tends to be discounted. You had a headache? Okay. You had a subhiatal hernia in the fourth position?* That's too bad.
And as much as I think my doctor should believe me, I know that patients are lousy at giving accurate accounts of their own medications, much less their medical history, diagnoses, allergies, etc.
So, if the data they contain is not actionable, what's all this folderol about PHRs?
Well, I should have qualified "actionable." It's not medically actionable, but there are other ways that a lot of value can be gained from the self-reported data. How does the NYT reporter put it? Oh, yeah. The "companies see the potential in attracting a large audience for health-related advertising and services."
Don't count the value of a PHR out just yet -- as an isolated tool for the general population, I don't see the value, but if it is (responsibly) integrated into a provider/patient integrated disease management system, it could be a life saver. There are some interesting things happening in the standards development arena that actually WOULD give the patient control over their own health information, both of which (standards and privacy) would go a long way toward making the next generation of HRs (not PHRs, not EHRs, but some hybrid) a very useful thing in terms of health care.
* Not an actual medical condition as far as I know, but that's basically the point.
Check out YourMedChart.com
They are a blend of PHR/EMR interface that actually is keeping records secure and in control of those who matter the most - the patients!!
wow gold cheap wow gold buy wow gold world of warcraft gold wow world of warcraft wow gold WoW Warrior WoW Hunter WoW Rogue WoW Paladin WoW Shaman WoW Priest WoW Mage WoW Druid WoW Warlock power leveling powerleveling wow power leveling wow powerleveling wow guides wow tips food flower google?? google???? google???? ???? ???? ???? ??? ?? LED? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? powerlin518 logo design website design web design ????
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home