Medical Professionals Aren't Leaping For E-Medicine

theodp writes "Despite all the stimulus money being directed toward developing electronic medical records, surprisingly few doctors, hospitals and insurers are using Google Health and other sites like it. One reason, Newsweek suggests, may be that Web-based personal-health records like the ones being compiled on Google Health don't appear to be covered under HIPAA, which requires that health care providers and health plans protect patient confidentiality. 'We don't connect that information to other aspects of Google,' explains Dr. Roni Zeiger, product manager for Google Health. Still, the federal government is in the process of drafting privacy recommendations that would apply to Google Health, as well as the makers of consumer apps that perform tasks like monitoring blood pressure."

Comments

Re:Why should I care about Google?

[beakerMeep]

Mind saying who the other corporations doing what Google is that are so respectful? Or are you just content frothing about Obama and injustice?

Really, all rudeness aside, I would love to see this list of companies willing to risk liability for accidental disclosure. And on what planet do you think Google can indemnify themselves from criminal liability?

Re:They can't get it into their heads...

[mcrbids]

And the "ME MY OUR" mentality all works wonders when you are technology centric enough to make it work, and conscious enough to apply it. But what happens when you are unconscious? And even if you aren't unconscious, what happens to the 50% percent of humanity that is statistically dumber than the average Joe?

The sad truth is that we need a system that works, even for the dumb people who can barely scratch their names onto a piece of paper and believe in aliens, creationism, and/or the illuminatti. "You don't have your records, and now you'll probably die" is not a good answer to give to the sorry young lady who lost her USB drive with the medical records on it when her boyfriend threw them into the fireplace in a jealous rage.

The problem is a problem because of the adversarial relationship we all have to have with private insurance companies. Policies such as "no pre-existing health conditions" and others required in a for-profit scenario make it a bad thing to document health conditions because they become loopholes exploited by private entities who seek to take our money while denying us the (costly) health care.

If only we could come up with a system that would allow everybody equal access to quality healthcare, without the motive for profit... too bad humanity isn't ingenious enough to figure this out! And so, because of this horrid lack of a solution, we have the messy quagmire of privacy and accessibility conflicts that all but nullify the benefits of information technology in health care.

It's time for a single-payer system - too bad we aren't going to get it.