back to article Google eyes Cleveland medical records

Google's efforts to engulf the world's medical records will begin in Cleveland. Today, the search engine cum world power announced a joint project with the Cleveland Clinic, an 87-year-old not-for-profit medical center, that will see between 1,500 and 10,000 of the center's patients entrust their personal records to Larry Page …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Robert Armstrong
    Stop

    The shark has just been jumped

    Google will be to on-line to privacy in medical record keeping as "Little Boy" was to Hiroshima. The carnage will exceed our expectations and recovery will take far longer than anyone could ever imagine. Let the lawsuits begin!

  2. Shaun

    Targeted ads

    I'm sure with Google's love of ads this will just be another way of refining the adverts we see, but basing them on medical records... If nothing else, it should allow spammers to check if the people they're sending viagra emails to really need it

  3. Larry Adams
    Coat

    Google eyes Cleveland medical records

    Google isn't first by any means... possibly first to put the information on a possibly unrestricted web site. Kaiser Permanente in California has been converting medical records to electronic media for well over a year. While there were some startup problems with it, it is working fairly well now.

    My doctor can order lab work to be done immediately or at a future date online while I'm still in the examination from. He can email a new prescription to the pharmacy and it will generally be ready by the time I walk from his office to the pharmacy. He can give me a written copy of his findings at the examination, and include in it any specific instructions.

    It is password protected, doubly so because you have to register on the Kaiser website, and then request access, which is mailed to your address of record. You can't review every page in your records, but can see what you need to know, what prescriptions you're taking (in case your feeble brain can't remember all of them).

    Coat please... the medical jacket

  4. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    Pirate

    Zero customer support?

    How does this work with Google's zero customer support strategy? Lets say your house is being robbed three times a month and your family has been beaten nearly to death twice because criminal gangs have figured out how to view your prescriptions on Google. Who at Google is going to help? Nobody. You're going to die.

  5. SpitefulGOD
    Gates Halo

    Amazing.

    HealthVault already does this does it not (and probably a lot better)... google innovation.. not

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Memo to NHS

    ...can we have our £bns back please? Given that Google is essentially at the first step on the way to having our medical records in one place, easily accessible for doctors/ GPs/ consultants etc.

    And we can presume that as it's Google it'll actually work, too...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Been there. Done that.

    I work for the NHS in Scotland and we have had an electronic medical records system (GPASS) for years. Everyone in the country's medical records are stored in a database in the GP Surgery and can be electronically transferred to another surgery if you move, or to a hospital if you're admitted.

    Emergency Services have access to your Emergency Care Summary (ECS), which contains any information likely to be required should you experience a medical emergency.

    The system is completely secure and completely funded by the NHS. So, Google, don't bother trying to implement this in Scotland, as we beat you to the punch the best part of twenty years ago. Any other innovations up your sleeve? Perhaps some sort of list of people's address and telephone number, maybe alphabetised in some sort of 'Telephone Directory'...hmmm

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    private clinic

    I note that it is only a private clinic taking part, I wonder how the lucky patients were asked to take part.

    I also wonder if any NHS facilities were invited. Just think of the saving to the country if all the NHS records were held on a commercial server.....

    Mines the lab smock with unidentified stains on it.

  9. storng.bare.durid
    Paris Hilton

    A word of warning...

    Do not let too many people have a piece of the pie.

    I would like to know from our Happy Kaiser Permanante customer how many people his wonderful HMO have screwed out of treatment of payback.

    Do a bit of digging.

    That's the US system for you. They have VERY good reasons to want to keep track of all that happens to you.

    Don't get me wrong. When I mean they I mean those beancounters you never get to see. They are the ones who will fuck you over. I would like to assume that most doctors employed by Kaiser at least have some level of decency and ethics docs and other medical staff have in more socialist environs.

    They don't want to pay for your beta-interferon for your MS if they could get away with, or your peripheral stem cell autograft so you have a chance at salvage chemotherapy for the cancer burning deep within you if they can get away with it. And don't give me that bullshit about if you're that fucked, you might as well turn out the lights faster and go to sleep.

    I know health care is tricky. Have a complete free market and certain groups get marginalized. Have a totally socialist service and you have funding problems.

    I don't know what exactly Google have cooking with such an esteemed medical centre of excellence but ... there are a lot of issues I can see which involve privacy and who should see what, who ultimately can see what in reality et cetera. This concern is probably more valid in a health care environment like america where you are let's face it more likely to get shafted by your insurance company/HMO unless you've tons (AND TONS) of money.

    I have faith in the online records our Scottish colleague just described.

    This kaiser permanente thing or this latest cleveland thing? I would suggest you Americans who will have to live with it think clearly thru it first.

    Paris Hilton icon because she has soo much money she doesn't have to give a rat's ass about health insurance.

  10. T-Bo

    Not just a Clinic ...

    The Cleveland Clinic is actually a Health System with 10+ large hospitals and dozens of outpatient/ambulatory clinics as members ... this move actually has huge implications for those of us in Healthcare IT...

  11. Stephen Ware
    Paris Hilton

    Re:Been there. Done that

    'The system is completely secure and completely funded by the NHS'

    Spot 'stupid comment of the day' award.....

    Well it has to Paris then....

  12. SpitefulGOD
    Gates Halo

    Yes definately behind

    http://www.healthvault.com

    Even has an API, good ol' Bill

  13. Magnus

    I'm ashamed to say...

    that between Google and Her Majesty's Government I know who I'd trust more.

    For one thing Google know they would be litigated to oblivion should something go seriously wrong while all our dear civil servants have to fear is a government whitewash and possibly some gardening leave.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Stephen Ware

    Unless you're willing to break into a GP Surgery and hack into their server directly, then yes it is secure. The electronic transfer of data only takes place across secure dedicated network connections and the ports are only open long enough to transmit the data.

    The transmissions are limited to one record at any time, so unless you're prepared to physically break into a secure line on the off chance that the record you intercept might be of some use to you, then it's hardly worthwhile, is it?

  15. Stephen Ware
    Stop

    Re :Been there. Done that.

    'Unless you're willing to break into a GP Surgery and hack into their server directly, then yes it is secure. The electronic transfer of data only takes place across secure dedicated network connections and the ports are only open long enough to transmit the data'.

    I was merely commenting on the often quoted 'completley secure'. History proves otherwise. If you had used other words maybe I would not have taken the bait. A system is only secure as its weakest links. Maybe your GP's surgery is tight however where is the data going..A busy hospital...Is it secure there ?

    I Just get annoyed when people make such hyped claims. ID biometric database is so called secure say the goverment....Does that mean I believe them ?....

  16. Benjamin Wright

    Privacy by contract

    Maybe consumers can use contract law to enhance the privacy of their health records. http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/02/contracts-for-patient-privacy.html

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like