Google Health Can Finally Store Your Medical Files

Google Health recently pushed out an often asked for feature, the ability to store files and documents in a user’s PHR account. This includes images, .pdfs, and even audio and video files. The standard allotted file storage for each user is a generous 100MB (though each file needs to be under 4MB), enough to hold quite a few X-ray images, lab reports, and doctor’s notes.
In the Official Google Blog post, Google not only announced the feature, a one might say, essential addition to any Personal Health Record system, but they’ve gone a step further and encouraged its use by promoting advance directives.
Confusion about advance directives, the documents that tells medical professionals which sort of life saving or sustaining measures you’d like taken if you’re unable to communicate your preferences, often causes problems in near end-of-life situations. Many times, directives are either non-existent, not current, not correctly completed, or not shared with family members. Naturally, when controversy over a medical directive rears its head, the conservative option, full treatment, is generally taken. Advance directives take the guesswork out of what the patient might want, be it all possible treatments, or only comfort and pain control, and can allow for more peaceful end of life. To ease the process of putting together an advance directive, Google has partnered with Caring Connections, that offers them for free, downloadable for all 50 states.
We got in touch with Julie Wilner, R.N., and Program Manager for Google Health to ask about why Google Health chose to highlight advanced directives. She noted that advance directives are “documents that are integral for families who are dealing with terminal illnesses or difficult end-of-life situations. Not having a signed and readily available Advance Directive can cause problems for families and medical professionals who are trying to navigate difficult times.” Also, she pointed out that, “a lot of people in these situations assume you need a lawyer to create an advanced directive, when in fact, you can do so freely and easily online. Because Google Health allows users to upload scanned documents, it’s easy to store these types of forms in one place and share them with family members and caregivers. We partnered with Caring Connections to point our users to an easy to use resource for creating advance directives and storing them in Google Health.”
Link: Official Google Blog…
Product: Google Health…