As medical records go to Net, privacy is an issue
Thousands of patients at the Cleveland Clinic will be able to turn to Google to access their medical records online - everything from their prescriptions to diagnoses - in a pilot program that has some privacy advocates worried.
Google joins other companies - including Revolution Health (started by AOL co-founder Steve Case) and Microsoft, which launched HealthVault in October - that already keep personal patient records online where they can be accessed by anyone to whom a patient gives permission.
The Google pilot will start with 1,500 to 10,000 patients.
Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco, calls Google's initiative a "good idea." But, he adds, "The problem and the challenge arise in the context of consumer privacy and data security."
Both Microsoft and Google have given assurances that all data will be protected and will remain privately controlled by each individual.
"As the user, it's only you who controls access to your health information," says Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker.
Having a centralized system where doctors can access data instead of relying on myriad paper records and sometimes faulty memories will save patients, says C. Martin Harris of the Cleveland Clinic. The clinic already keeps records online in a private system. But having a system on Google will allow other medical providers, including doctors outside the clinic and pharmacies, to add data about patients, he says.
Every day, patients who go to the hospital are forced "to become their own medical historians," Harris says. "They have to record information from one physician and transmit it and communicate it to another physician. If they don't do that accurately, it can be dangerous."
The benefits of such as system outweigh the risks, adds Peter Neupert, vice president of the health solutions group at Microsoft. "In today's paper-based, fragmented, disconnected health system, bad things happen all the time."
But critics worry that the risk of sensitive medical information falling into the wrong hands - such as those at insurance companies, employers, drug companies and marketers - is too great.
Medical providers are required to protect medical records under a federal law, known as HIPAA. When people put their records online, they're no longer protected by that law, says Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant in Washington. He issued a report Wednesday for the World Privacy Forum critical of the personal health record companies. Even if companies have good intentions, they could be forced to turn over material if, for instance, they're subpoenaed, he says.
Sterling adds that even companies that promise privacy exist in a world where data breaches happen. "Unless or until there are legal protections and punishments, this kind of thing is of great concern."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments