It was interesting to hear today that Google has decided to close down it’s Google Health service. This service was set to be a great service to individuals that wanted to create an online health record and to get advice online that would help them manage their health.
There has been much discussion over the last few years regarding what Google’s motivation was in creating such a service, with many leaning towards the standard view that Google was just interested in gaining the advertising revenues associated with marketing of products to people who use this service. There was also concern about compliance of Google health with such laws as HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and accountability Act). I also remember signing up for the service when it launched in 2008 and being told the service only applied to American citizens which I thought was a bit limiting.
It is great to see that Google has allowed users to extract their data in certain formats (CSV, Excel, PDF etc) which gives me encouragement that Google is taking the view that personal information belongs to the individual not to Google. The service will continue to operate until January 2012 so you have a few months to extract your data.
Microsoft’s HealthVault on the other hand shows no sign of stopping. It seems that Microsoft’s implementation has found more favour with health professionals and is being adopted on in the UK and other countries. Thos familiar with the health industry will know that the best way to get things working in this space is to make sure you are on side with the health professionals.
Regarding our own health record in myINFOSAFE, we are looking to move the format of health data stored towards open portable data standards so users have the option to import data from other compliant services or similarly export their data if they choose to. Watch this space.
Some relevant links for further dialogue on this subject for those that are interested:
