Google and your medical Records: Connecting Patients and Doctors online

World’s largest search engine, then Froogle, Google Answers, Google documents and now Google has launched Google Health. Google plans to compile online personal health care records that would contain confidential medical information of the general public, including test results and prescriptions.

In an interface similar to use of email account, a user can manage his own records, with access via a user name and password. New service is expected to help both doctors and the increasing number of patients who use the Internet for their own medical research. Sounding optimistic about potential of this service CEO Eric Schmidt said, "There are 6 billion people who would benefit from the system. Only 1.5 billion or so are online. A reasonable goal will be that every single person who has access to the Internet would consider having a personal health record."

In a Google Blog post, Vice President of Search & User Products Marissa Mayer wrote that Google Health will protect the privacy of your health information by giving you complete control over your data. We won't sell or share your data without your explicit permission. Our privacy policy and practices have been developed in thoughtful collaboration with experts from the Google Health Advisory Council.

The earning model of the Google would be to assemble a directory of third-party services that interoperate with Google Health. For a user, it means that he will be able to automatically import information such as his doctors' records, prescription history, and test results into Google Health in order to easily access and control data. The user can simply import the data from each medical facility and then choose to share it with the other facilities. Its advanced data portability like this would make a difference in the quality of healthcare.

On an interesting note, Schmidt has said that they will not be including advertising within this new service. However, they intend to profit by increasing traffic to its search site - the same approach it used with the ad-free Google News section.

The issue that arises here is trust. In order for this service to be successful, Google needs to earn the trust of the general public, so that they actually have medical records to store on the system. The question is will Google get enough people to believe that they will store their personal medical records in a safe manner? I am sure Google will.

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