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Google Health Opens To the Public

Posted by kdawson on from the take-two-aspirin-and-don't-call-me-ever dept.

Several readers noted that the limited pilot test of Google Health has ended, and Google is now offering the service to the public at large. Google Health allows patients to enter health information, such as conditions and prescriptions, find related medical information, and share information with their health care providers (at the patient's request). Information may be entered manually or imported from partnered health care providers. The service is offered free of charge, and Google won't be including advertising. The WSJ and the NYTimes provide details about Google's numerous health partners.

2 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wow by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 0, Troll

    Good--this is necessary. You have states like Maine, with absolutely draconian rules (because the party in power desperately wants to enforce a single-payer system and drive out all the other insurers), and this is a great way to tell them to fuck off.

    Laws to prevent insurers from charging sick people extra are potentially dangerous, but even if not--they should be federal, not state-by-state.

    --
    "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
  2. Re:Privacy by Uncle+Focker · · Score: 0, Troll

    Google does not provide medical services, which is why they are not bound to the provisions of HIPAA. HIPPA is a regulation of privacy and portability for providers of medical services, not for companies that act as a storage medium for your personal health information. Yeah, we know this thanks for repeating this piece of information that has already been posted a dozen times or more by now. The point is the fact that some people aren't going to feel very safe having their records being stored with no HIPAA protections. I'm sorry but Google's privacy policy, which can be changed at their whim, doesn't cut it.

    If people use Excel to store their medical records, will Microsoft somehow be responsible for complying with HIPAA? Of course not. Because storing stuff in a local Excel file is definitely the same as having your personal records being sent over the Internet. Yep, clearly the same thing. Next thing you know we shouldn't have any protection on any data because you know, I could have that same data stored on a local file. Moron.