Have a strange medical symptom that you are unsure about? If you are like many web users, you seek out information on the web before going to the doctor. Google is taking their product offering one step further in 2008 with the launch of Google Health.
In June 2007 Google recruited an advisory board of healthcare professionals to offer feedback on this new project. Google hopes to ensure that the search results are filled with relevant medical information helpful to searchers.
Currently the only glimpse that users get into the world of Google Health is a login screen:
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=health
Your Google id won’t get you past the screen yet. However apparently you will be able to:
* Build online health profiles that belong to you
* Download medical records from doctors and pharmacies
* Get personalized health guidance and relevant news
* Find qualified doctors and connect to time-saving services
* Share selected information with family or caregivers
With centralised medical records raising privacy rights issues already, it will be interesting to see how many people will wish to “build an online health profile”. Google already has a huge amount of personal data on its users including a history of all the websites they visited. Many may question whether storing “online health profiles” is going one step too far.
Google Health Follows Microsoft’s launch of Health Vault in Fall 2007, which includes storage of medical records and a health specific search engine: https://health.live.com/default.aspx
Post date 31/01/2008
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