Google Health is alive and well

It's Tuesday's IT Blogwatch in which Google wants to help you help yourself to your own medical history. Not to mention Microsoft's instructions to slackers...

Marissa Mayer lead the tour:

In terms of new products, we made Google Health publicly available. It offers users a safe and secure way to collect, store, and manage their medical records and health information online. more

Mark took the tour :

11:22am: After a brief break, it’s time for Google Health. Mayer back on stage ...
11:30am: Google Health takes users’ medical records and brings them online. They can see them, control them, put them to good use. Not an easy initiative but makes sense for Google to take this initiative on (lots of people start with search when concerned about health). ...
11:39am: Chief Medical Officer from Quest Diagnostics brought on stage to talk about partnership. ...
11:45am: Walgreen’s pharmacist on stage talking ...
11:54am: Cleveland Clinic on stage talking ...
11:57am: Q&A ...
Google doesn’t do exclusive partnerships, ...
You can import doctors into your Gmail contacts list ...
Mayer: this is about convenience and cost-reduction. Seems gear mostly towards helping patients help themselves, rather than helping doctors help patients. ...
12:03am: This is not advertising supported. ...
When asked about security, Mayer says it uses its “highest level of security”; have implementing a special infrastructure for this. Security and privacy has been Google’s biggest concern, they say.
12:18pm: Q&A over, that pretty much wraps up the event. more

Kristen does the comparison:

With the current offering, the most powerful aspect of Google Health is likely its consumer-facing portal, which a number of third-party services will be interested in having a spot. This appears to be more integrated with third parties than Microsoft’s HealthVault. Even though Google is explicitly not in partnership with these third party services, having a select number of these services is almost acting as a recommendation to the end user. more

David has a healthy scepticism:

Google is not a “covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and therefore, the provisions of that law do not apply to what Google does with your info. That means if you disclose details such as whether you have AIDS, HIV or any sexually transmitted disease, have been treated for drug an alcohol abuse, have had an abortion, or have a genetic predisposition to any diseases, you have to just trust Google to keep that information secure. more

Privacy, schrimacy. Sarah is worried about her manicure:

Google seems to be trying to address one of the big problems with PHRs: maintaining them is a big pain.

“Of course you don’t want to type in your entire medical history yourself,” says Google, playing the soothing therapist. So the company has developed partnerships with a handful of health-care entities to lend a hand. For instance Walgreen said it would help patients access their pharmacy records through Google Health, and CVS Caremark said patients would be able to get to their prescription records as well as summaries from their visits to MinuteClinic. more

Erik is changing his password:

Another issue: Google and Microsoft use a simple Gmail or Windows Live user name and password to access the records. That's great for convenience, but terrible for security and privacy. Internet criminals commonly try to guess or steal Web mail accounts. It's bad enough when a snoop rifles through your Web mail. Imagine one getting access to all your health records at the same time. more

Stephen has it straight from Roni:

"No Google Health user will ever find their Google Health information as search results anywhere on Google. That information is yours," Zeiger [the Google Health product manager] said.

To join, users must agree to various terms of use, including this: "When you provide your information through Google Health, you give Google a license to use and distribute it in connection with Google Health and other Google services." more

Deepak likes what he sees:

The service launches with a familiar “googl-ey” look and feel to it, one that I like.

The service does not come across looking too bloated either. Right now, it is a simple Personalized Health Record with a catalog of items that can be added, e.g. procedures, medications, etc. more

And finally...

• there's no social networking at Microsoft

Buffer overflow:

• Alex Eckelberry: Path Intelligence cell tracking technology
• 1 Raindrop: Security Evolution
• Saul Hansell: Apple Wants More Mobile Music From Labels
• Gearlog: JVC Intros "YouTube Camcorder"
• Jon Stokes: RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era
• Technabob: iphone runs windows vista (kinda sorta)
• Robert Scoble: Why Microsoft will buy Facebook and keep it closed

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: The Linux desktop is ready already
• Preston Gralla: Microsoft should abandon Yahoo, Facebook deals
• Mike Elgan: Why 'digital nomads' need Wi-Fi finders
• Mark Hall: IT leaves ex-workers' accounts open
• Douglas Schweitzer: PDA vs. Laptop: PDA Wins!
• Don Tennant: Fluidity of influence
• Shark Tank: How it's done
• Shark Bait: To Quit, Or Not To Quit?

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Joyce Carpenter was healthy enough to post today's IT Blogwatch while our usual Blogwatcher, Richi Jennings, is away.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Mozilla releases release candidate 1 of Firefox 3
• Microhoo: ready... PROXY FIGHT!
• Verizon cuddles the penguin; joins LiMo