Google Health: Tonic or Toxic?

Tuesday 10 March 2009 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Street View is not the only target for those resisting the Googlification of the modern world this week. Google's drive to digitise health records, first launched in May 2008, is being stepped up – buoyed, no doubt, by Obama's support of this as part of his health care reform plans – and so is the criticism of it.

Like Microsoft's HealthVault, Google Health is an enormous on-line filing cabinet of users' health records. Now the service has launched a feature allowing users to share their on-line data with those health professionals, friends and family that they choose. Sharing information with Google Health couldn't be simpler – a user selects the e-mail addresses for those he or she wishes to share medical data with, and Google sends them a link to their health profile.

There are undoubtedly benefits of such a system. Sameer Samat, Google's Director of Product Management, gives a personal example in his recent blog:

"Just a few years ago, my father suffered a minor heart attack and was sent to the ER. I arrived on the scene in a panic, and was asked what medications he was taking. To my surprise, I had no clue. If my father had a Google Health account, and had shared his profile with me, I would have been up-to-date on his current medications."

But, if the benefits are obvious, so are the dangers. Google defends its service by outlining the security measures that are in place to protect sensitive information:

"The link will only work in connection with the email address of that person — your profile can't be accessed if the link is forwarded on. You can stop sharing at any time, and you can always see who has access to your information. Those who are viewing your profile can only see the profile you share – not any other one in your account. We've also built in some extra protections to make sure your health information stays safe, private, and under your control:

The sharing link in the email expires after 30 days, but the sharing access itself does not expire – it will stay in place until the user decides to stop sharing
Viewers can only see – not edit – your Google Health profile
You can review a user activity report to see who has viewed your profile."

It's not only the security of Google Health that's being called into question, however – it's also its usefulness. While the importance of having up-to-date health information on your loved ones – especially in an emergency – is undisputed, the ultimate worth of the data relies upon the user remembering to update their on-line profile on a regular basis to ensure that the information held there is accurate.

Undaunted by these criticisms, Google has introduced features that allow users to print out wallet-sized or A4-sized hard copies of their records that can be carried on their person. Such information will, of course, date very quickly and, it could be argued, out-of-date records could do more harm than good.

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