Google Health Needs Security Rx

Recently launched Google Health, which allows you to store and manage all your health information online, is just the latest sign that the healthcare sector is carving out its own space in the Web 2.0 revolution. Health 2.0 has its own flavor of user-generated content, wikis, blogs, mashups, and wireless options that come with cellphones and PDAs.  Autonomy is a key driver of this dramatic change. In the process, traditional health paradigms are turned on their heads.

Google Health allows individuals to build their own health profiles online, entering health conditions, medication, allergies, lab results, etc. Users can even create multiple profiles for family members or others they care for, and import medical records from participating hospitals and pharmacies.  Participants can find trusted information on diseases and conditions of interest to them and learn about possible medication interactions and other topics to talk with their doctors about.  In a word, you would have autonomy, everywhere.

Assistance is also provided with reminders to take medications (the virtual pill box) and with finding physicians and hospitals matched to the individual’s needs.  The system allows patients to keep their doctors up to date on what is happening with them. It incorporates automatic notification of potential drug interactions, eliminates the need to repeatedly fill out the same paperwork when visiting new physicians, and avoids unnecessary repetition of lab tests.

The launching of Google Health follows an initiative earlier this year by healthcare insurer Aetna, which announced a new service to help people manage their own health records online. Aetna’s personalized online medical information service, called SmartSource, draws upon a patient’s own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatment. The company plans to gradually introduce the free service nationwide to its customers beginning in August.

So what could Google Health accomplish? The immediate goal is to improve health, provide proper treatment, and prevent future disease. Ultimately, it allows individuals to be responsible for their own health and for interaction with healthcare providers and insurers. It therefore makes sense that they should have ready access to their own medical records, X-rays, and lab tests. People should be able to transfer their health records in readily understandable form to other health providers and other insurers — and know that the records are accurate and complete.

Google Health is a potentially very powerful and useful resource. But it also shares vulnerability with other online resources and has privacy advocates warning about the dangers of inadvertent release of personal information. Google servers are at the top of the list of IP addresses infected with malware, so there are other risks to think about as well. Google says the servers used for Google Health will be more secure than the other servers it uses.

It is the unsafe aspects of computing at the moment that make Google Health risky. Unless we reach the point where computing is essentially risk free, accidental dissemination of private health records to the wrong parties will always be a possibility, and the potential downsides of Google Health will remain.

— Kim Solez, MD, Director of NKF cyberNephrology at the University of Alberta

From Internet Evolution