Dr. Google on your case

Medical records going online may be the last privacy frontier

It’s inevitable. Our health records will eventually be universally online.

Medical records are the one set of data still held sacred by almost everyone when it comes to privacy. So there’s been quite the delay in moving them online due to the data security risks.

But efficiency will trump the risks. Thank goodness. I want my doctors to know my blood type is O positive, and I want them to know quickly. Google and Microsoft are battling to make this happen stat, despite privacy advocates sniffling and wringing their hands:

The tech rivals launched similar personal health record services in 2007. Both are pitching consumers on an electronic record that they can control and share, as they see fit, with health care providers.

With Google Health and Microsoft’s HealthVault, consumers can maintain a digital health record that contains various data from medical offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and even patients themselves…

[T]he idea of a digital health record has also stirred privacy fears. Although both companies say their services put patients in control of their records, some health care providers remain concerned over how the data will be handled, particularly if Google and Microsoft aren’t subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the federal law that governs how doctors and hospitals handle data.

“Without patient trust, (Google Health and HealthVault) won’t really flourish,” said Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

via Microsoft, Google in healthy competition – CNN.com.

Dr. Google, while you’re at it, can you do anything to make the waiting rooms more efficient? I hate being uncomfortably perched on the leather gurney robed only in a paper gown for 20 minutes waiting for the doctor to arrive.

Update: Fellow tech writer Nick Kolakowski points out that privacy is not the only issue for Google Health. Inaccuracy is a concern too, he says at eWeek.com.