Google: the Future of Patient Records?
Written March 9th, 2009 by Thomas AmesIt might be considered old news now, but Google and Cleveland Clinic have teamed up to provide patients’ health information through a secured Google account. After running a wildly successful patient portal with over 100,000 participants, this seems to bypass the hospital-specific portal and extend it to a patient’s private account. Is this the future of patient health information?
What we and our vendors might consider the newest and greatest technological innovation might already be in the past. The trendy keyword is “portal.” Patient portals, employee portals, physician portals, board member portals; I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a portal portal. But what Cleveland Clinic seems to be doing is taking the portal out of their hospital’s jurisdiction, and, instead, feeding it to a patient’s personal account.
I can’t seem to find a downside to this arrangement. A hospital simply creates a secure feed of information that is supplied through some sort of enrollment process initiated by the patient. The patient, instead of having to remember a million usernames and passwords, can simply find and download her information on to, say, an iGoogle homepage. There, she can manage his health records, correspond with the physician, track her at-home numbers (such as nutrition, weight, sugar levels, etc), which can then feed back in to the hospital for analysis.
While the project is still in pilot stage, it’s an incredibly interesting and logical concept and way to evolve patient health records. But are there any potential downsides?
March 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
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March 10th, 2009 at 5:09 am
There is a decent sized group of people who worry that Google is taking over the world, and they are less than excited about sharing any health information in a venue where Google might get their hands on it. I haven’t read their fine print, but some of it regarding AdWords and other elements is pretty scary.
March 10th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Patient portals have been a mainstream topic of conversation for healthcare organizations for a while now. The challenge has always been how to provide what consumers would be interested in, but also please those who still want to grasp on to the info like they own it. As all of us know, the reality is, patients own their hospital records – not the hospital. We can, however, help make the access to their patient-owned information easier. Coming from a hospital, I believe that consumers will have more faith in the security and protection of the private information, rather than a mega-corp such as Google (and as we have learned by many of the past, can ultimately have hidden agendas).
March 10th, 2009 at 8:46 am
The Google – Cleveland Clinic Pilot is a breakthrough study and one to keep a close eye on. Last year I completed a study of individuals with chronic diseases who use the Internet to manage and cope with their disease. What I found was that no matter what the disease, these individuals want to use the Internet to find information specific to their condition – especially as they age and their disease changes along with them, resourses that help them make decisions about their treatment, lifestyle choices and helping them get things done, socializaiton – a place to talk with other who have the same condition and finally desease management tools that help them be compliant with their medication regimens etc. The chronic disease sector of patients will always be in touch with the institutions where they receive care, managing their medical records and co-morbidities is a plus. Many in my study we’re scared of medication contraindications, wanting to collect info about themselves, their progress and doing what their doctor(s) told them to do. The Google /Cleveland Clinic is giving this particular group what they want and what they need. It’s impressive.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am
It creates value for the customer. Simple as that.
Many hospitals would like to monopolize their patients’ EMR/PHR – a way to create switching costs for the patient. However, it goes against good customer service which always dictates ‘give them what they want.’
Let’s face it … Google saw an underserved need … the ability to 1.) access medical information that rightfully belongs to the patient, and 2.) a means to easily take it with them where ever they go. Hospitals have been slow, stupid, poor, blind, arrogant, lazy, conservative, political, greedy (or any combination of the above) to deliver it first.
Whether you like Google or not is irrelevant. If your patients like Google, you better pay attention. And think about it … what is Google good at? They’re good – maybe the world’s best – at massive user-driven online database storage and exchange. Nobody is going to beat them at this game. Do you really believe your hospital can do better? Or is better to join the winning team?
Good on Cleveland Clinic to see this from a 40-story high perspective and get on the very front of this tidal wave about to come upon all of us.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:03 am
Does anyone know how they will handle parents who want to manage their childrens’ or families medical records via their Google account?
May 19th, 2009 at 10:55 am
[...] Google becoming more involved with patient records, such as with Cleveland Clinic, I see an iGoogle-inspired portal in the near future. But other [...]