Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Google Health, a Quick Review
Filed under: Net News
Yesterday we spent a bit of time looking over the newly announced Google Health, a free service currently in beta, that creates a central point for storing one's personal health information online. Our overall experience with what we saw is generally positive, but we do hold a few reservations that need to be addressed.
The essential thing about Google Health is that its easy and intuitive to use, fairly comprehensive, but without being overwhelming. Google partnered with a number of healthcare providers and pharmacies (Longs, MEDCO, Minute Clinic/CVS, Quest Laboratories, Walgreens, and others) to allow their customers to easily import personal records into Google Health, and then to share this data with other authorized providers and individuals. Additionally, one can manually enter things like one's conditions, medications, allergies and test results.
Based on patient's data Google provides condition information, drug interaction, and references relevant to one's individual health conditions.
So far the service looks respectable, and we would even give it the Medgadget Mark of Approval had the origin of the service would have been any company that doesn't already have all our email communications, calendar, photos of our front doors, roofs and backyards, and knowledge of everything we're interested in, thanks to our comprehensive search history being kept by Google . Additionally, it should be noted that Google Health is not a finished product, seeing how it is, like most things Google, still in beta. It also is currently missing the ability to enter one's past medical history, past surgical history, as well as relevant family history of diseases.
More views, reviews, and overviews from the blogosphere:
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