Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Google, Microsoft, and You?
Filed under: Informatics
Via Bernard's Diabetes Blog, we found a New York Times article about Google's and Microsoft's plans for bringing electronic medical records to the masses. Both efforts will likely be announced later this year or next, and both will likely employ a patient-centered approach. Its not fully clear what they're up to, but they're beefing up and focusing their search engines specifically on health related material, and working on managing one's personal health records. We're particularly tickled by a leaked screenshot of a Google Health's page, on Google Blogoscoped :
This "Conditions & symptoms" dialog includes an auto-completion feature, just like other input boxes in Google Health. You enter "head", and Google suggests "Head and Neck Angioedema", "Head Injury", "Head Pain" and more.
Oh, yes. Bring it. Maybe a year from now, a patient with the worst headache of his life will direct me to his Google Health page, which will helpfully include a history of "Severe Head Pain" -- this is the diagnostic aid we've been waiting for! A more robust critique of patient-produced diagnoses is up at Graham Walker's site.
We're also excited about the mysterious "Immunications" that are mentioned on one screenshot -- Are they email reminders about immunizations? Are they medications that promote healing? Is this a revolutionary new product from the leading internet company, or a hack job put together by spelling-impaired high schoolers over the weekend?
Color us disappointed. We thought when Google brought together some of the world's top experts in health care and informatics, we'd soon see the emergence of a secure, intuitive way to maintain and update medical information. Instead, it looks like we're getting Medical MySpace -- with all the vacuousness and fluff that name implies. Instead of real diagnoses, we get a drop-down list featuring "Severe Head Pain."
We fail to see how this is a step up from the wallet-sized index cards listing medications, allergies, and doctor's phone numbers that responsible patients already carry around with them.
Screenshots at Google Blogoscoped...
More from Google OS...
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examples: <b>Bold</b> <i>Italic</i>
