Google now knows my blood type…
No this isn’t a new form of technology that does full body scans and deciphers the cellular makeup of the human body, though I wouldn’t put that past Google. It seems Google is branching out in every direction possible. First was search, then came email, maps, document management, personal sites, domain integration, business management, and the list goes on. Now Google is entering into competition with Microsoft’s HealthVault . Google released information last weekend about its pilot program with Cleveland Clinic to test out Google Health, a Google application that enables users to view their health records from anywhere.
The service will only be available to those facilities that already allow electronic viewing of health records if this does indeed go live. Currently only margins of 1-3% of US residents have used some form of e-health records lookup. But I can defiantly see this margin growing if Google enters the game. They have a way of attracting a large spectrum of users. This brings up further concerns about patient / user privacy. As already talked about in a previous article Telling the world what they already know placing this information in a world based environment could be a potential danger. Marissa Mayer, vice president of search and user products for Google, has stressed the privacy and security that Google will offer around customers’ health data. Unless users give explicit permission, Google won’t share or sell their data. But there’s always that concern.
What are your thoughts, where should one draw the line on data accessibility? Is the potential threat of revealing personal private data enough or is the convenience of not having to carry and track your own health records enough for you to make a move to a central storage medium?
