Google Health launch sparks worry over security of health records

PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 555 - 14 Jun 2008

Google Health launch sparks worryover security of health records

Google Health has been launched by the searchengine giant, offering patients a free, personal electronicmedical record (www.google.com/health), reports theBMJ. However, the move has prompted concerns in theUS over the security of health information stored in thisway.

Individuals will be able to create a password-protected account, and enter personal medical records,either by keying them in or importing them fromhospitals, laboratories and pharmacies that are GoogleHealth partners. Patients can also permit healthcareprofessionals to access this record, and add to it; theuser can revoke the permission at any time.

Safety first . . .However, Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman

from Harvard University contend that electronic healthrecords may lead to a "sea" of results being copied fromprevious records, "instead of being focused andselective". Moreover, such records have "become apowerful vehicle for perpetuating erroneous information,leading to diagnostic errors".

Large medical centre jumps on boardNevertheless, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,

Boston, a Harvard affiliate, announced recently that itwas expanding options for users of its secure PatientSiteportal by joining with Google "to offer a new way tosafely exchange medical records and other health data".Hopkins Tanne J. Google launches free electronic health records service forpatients. BMJ 7655: 1207, No. 336, 31 May 2008 801085135

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 14 Jun 2008 No. 5551173-5503/10/0555-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved