Sorry for the delay. The question has been posed: What do I think about Google Health?
In short, it will ultimately be useless. It's a great idea. But it will fail.
I think that Google Health will fail for two huge reasons. One: it relies on people to keep track of their health information. The average person in the United States doesn't do this to begin with. And it's not due to a lack of an easy, centralized system of record keeping, it is due to a lack of understanding of both health care issues and the health care system. 45% of Americans are unable to understand the instructions "take this medication with food". If this concept is rough, then keeping track of all their health information (most of which they don't understand anyway) will be impossible.
The second reason (and the biggest reason) why I think Google Health with be ultimately useless is that it depends on physicians to utilize the system. Physicians are busy. Really busy. They don't have time to use both their own in house record keeping system (the one mandated by law) and an outside system. And, ultimately, it would be highly unethical (if not illegal) for a physician to post a patients information on Google Health because THEY CAN"T CONTROL WHO SEES IT. This is very similar to installing a neon sign on the roof of your office that reads "Lawsuits Welcome!" . So unless Google is willing to put up the money and lawyers to deal with the HIPPA implications of posting patient information online, it won't happen.
So in conclusion, I believe Google Health is just another useless way for Google to say "look at how shiny we are".
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Disclaimer
All information provided here is for educational and entertainment purposes only. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease or illness. I am a medical student. I am NOT a doctor.
3 comments:
They're not just shiny. They're handy.
Is it possible for them to clear the legal hurdles to make it work? Say, a patient signs a release that allows his or her doctor to upload this stuff onto Google Health?
Despite logic, legal waivers do very little to mitigate medical lawsuits.
From what I can infer, Google Health requires the patient to submit the information. I suppose the doctor could act as a "middle man" and submit the information on the patient's behalf, or give them a summarized report to submit themselves, but I as long as the submission itself is made (or requested) by the patient, I think the HIPPA hurdle is cleared. However, take a look at this excerpt from the terms of service on Google Health:
"Google is not a "covered entity" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the regulations promulgated thereunder ("HIPAA"). As a result, HIPAA does not apply to the transmission of health information by Google to any third party"
Translation: "we can do as we damn well please with the information you give us." The real legality issue I see is that google could sell access to this information to the healthcare companies. Or worse, they could sell access to this information to malpractice attorneys. I can envision law firms delving through the archives looking for cases that could be argued as malpractice.
Lawsuits don't have to be legitimate to be very costly to the doctors (or profitable to the plaintiffs, since they are often settled to avoid court costs). I can see Google Health becoming a threat to perfectly legitimate practices. Does the medical community have good lobbyists, Walter?
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