Beth Israel Deaconess: Sending claims data to Google 'a mistake'

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has decided to take a big step back from its current method for populating its Google Health PHR with data, getting a black eye when some of the data was proved faulty.

An executive there admitted last week that sending claims data to Google Health as a way of summarizing patient medical histories was "a mistake." His statement stems in part from Beth Israel's getting busted by the Boston Globe, which highlighted cases in which often inaccurate claims data led to health problems for at least one patient featured in a recent article.

Beth Israel will now send Google lists of patients' medical problems directly from clinical records.

The question is, what made the wise minds at Beth Israel tune out the well-known inaccuracies in claims data generally, which aren't exactly a secret? If they did what they did because claims data is already digitized, and therefore easier to send, does that make a manual based on emerging EMRs impractical? All questions are in need of quick answers if PHRs as a model are to stabilize.

To learn more about this controversy:
- read this piece from The Boston Globe

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