Google Health beta launches

Sound the trumpets: Google Health has launched its official public beta of its personal health record. While Google's offering theoretically goes head-to-head with products like Microsoft's Health Vault, as well as offerings by WebMD and Revolution Health, as the home page to the world, Google is uniquely positioned to change the game if it can simply execute consistently and well on the PHR model--at least that's our view here at FierceHealthIT.

The much-anticipated service, which has been in private beta for several months, offers users the ability to create a personal health record, import medical records, laboratory test results and pharmacy data, and search for physicians. Google Health also links up consumers with a variety of online health services, including e-consults from the Cleveland Clinic, Medem's iHealth portal linking doctors and patients online, a handful of services turning a patient's existing paper records into digital form, a diabetes monitoring tool and a prescription reminder service.

In the past, adversaries have suggested that Google's data may turn out to be less secure than other forms of medical records. For one thing, users access the records using the same name/password combination they use for other Google services (such as Calendar and Gmail), leaving the possibility that a comparatively simple Internet exploit could expose their medical records. Also, other critics note that Google isn't bound by HIPAA, which could lead to misuse of the health data at some point. Will these be issues? I guess we'll find out.

To learn more about the Google Health launch:
- read this story from the New York Times

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Google begins storing medical records
Microsoft kicks off PHR initiative

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