| |
 |
| |
Googling For Your Health
Google unveils plans for online medical records database
October 18, 2007—In the wake of an announcement by Microsoft Corp, which plans to support a database of online personal health records, Google has announced that it has plans for a similar offering in the works.
Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of search products and user experience, made the announcement at a recent Web 2.0 Summit, sponsored by Computerworld Inc. Mayer explained that the search engine giant became interested in the online preservation and storage of medical records after recognizing that when disaster, like Hurricane Katrina, strikes, paper-based medical records can become lost or irreparably damaged.
“In that moment, it was too late for us to mobilize,” says Mayer. “It doesn’t make sense to generate this volume of information on paper. It should have been something that is digital. People should have control over their own records.”
The proposed database will allow users to access their medical records, including x rays and health history, online.
“This is obviously a really big vision. It is a huge endeavor. It will take a lot of breakthroughs in digitization,” Mayer said. “This is something we are committed to. You’ll be seeing a lot more activity here in the months to come, so stay tuned. “
Microsoft Corp’s HealthVault, billed as an “online health care service designed to help patients take control of their health records and monitor their medical conditions,” was announced at a corporate event gathering in Washington this past Thursday.
“We all know health is incredibly complex. It has lots of information, and we make it harder than it needs to be, “says Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group. “By making it harder than it needs to be, bad things happen.”
HealthVault applications are now available for free download on the HealthVault website. The site, explains Neupert, is three tier, containing Health Vault search, designed to give relevant online health content, Health Vault repository account, and Health Vault connection center, which allows users to share their health records with their families and physicians.
Google’s yet as unnamed medical records database is expected to be offered to the public before the end of 2007, but the question of whether two very similar services will be able to successfully exist in duality seems to be answered by that fact that less than 30 percent of doctor’s offices and hospitals, according to IDG, utilize medical and or health related records in paper form.
Read More Articles
|
|
|
Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Articles