Google still has “broad interest” in health care

Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of Search Products & User Experience, told Internet industry leaders at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that the company was still interested in search-based health care information services.

[Google] is also looking to figure out how to create transportable personal health records that give users “a lot of control” over who can see such sensitive documents.

I think the main barrier to the success of these online health care records services, be they from Google or Microsoft or whoever, is not going to be security. Of course security is important, and the average consumer understands that, but I think interoperability and automation is what is going to make or break these systems.

People are not going to type in their own health records every time they get a drug or medical procedure. Now, if they can hit a button and automatically download records from their doctor, hospital, pharmacy, health insurer, etc., that’s different. Unfortunately, this kind of access to medical data is years away, and collecting and providing that data has it’s own hurdles to overcome.

Google says working to solve health record dilemma [Via Reuters]

Google’s Health Platform Coming in Early 2008 [Via Marketing Pilgrim]

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