Google says working to solve health record dilemma
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Google Inc aims to apply Web search technology to a general set of health information problems and remains committed to the market despite slow initial progress, an executive said on Wednesday.
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Medical records are frequently  incomplete or missing during patient visits to the doctor,  posing potential danger and wasting time, a survey of  physicians said on Tuesday.
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The system eventually will lead to all patients having an individual electronic record. Online booking will mean doctors and patients can make hospital appointments at their convenience.
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Digital patient records could become building blocks in a nationwide biomedical computer network for assembling and distributing up-to-the-minute studies of disease.
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Google has responded to a U.S. congressman&#39;s series of questions about its privacy practices, with the company defending its use of consumer data.Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, sent a letter to Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt Dec. 12, after privacy groups raised questions about the implications of Google&#39;s US$3.1 billion acquisition of online ad server DoubleClick.During an earlier meeting with Schmidt, Barton had &quot;voiced concern regarding the potential consumer protection and privacy implications of the merger,&quot; Barton said in his letter. &quot;I believe Google&#39;s participation in our research into and consideration of the consumer protection implications of a merger of any online search engine and any behavioral or targeted advertising firms is vital to crafting sound national policy.&quot;In response to Barton&#39;s questions about the privacy implications of the merger, Google repeated its calls for Congress to pass a national privacy law that would create a &quot;uniform framework for privacy.&quot;&quot;Concerns about online privacy cannot be solved by one company alone,&quot; said the Google letter, by Alan Davidson, the company&#39;s head of U.S. public policy. &quot;Moreover, both technologies and best practices for protecting privacy are changing rapidly. We therefore encourage you and your staff to ask these questions of other providers of online services.&quot;Barton, ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, had asked Google to respond to his letter before Dec. 18, about when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was expected to complete its examination of the antitrust implications of the merger. Google&#39;s response was dated Friday, one day after the FTC announced it would not block the DoubleClick acquisition. Google hosted Barton&#39;s staff at its headquarters Wednesday and Thursday, however.The FTC approval is the last U.S. hurdle for the merger; the European Union is still reviewing it.Barton&#39;s letter asked several questions about Google&#39;s privacy practices, including how long Google retains search queries, e-mail drafted on Google&#39;s Gmail service and Web histories. Barton also asked why Google needed to retain data.The IP (Internet Protocol) addresses associated with search queries will be partially deleted after 18 months, as Google previously has announced, the letter said. In other services, such as Gmail and Google Web History, the privacy preferences are customized by individual users, the letter said.Google retains data about searches as a way to improve its search algorithms and to improve services such as the spell checking feature on Google search, the letter said. The company also uses the data to fight click fraud and other malicious efforts, the letter said.Barton also asked if Google plans to merge its consumer data with DoubleClick&#39;s after the merger. He asked what was the benefit of the merger if Google did not plan to merge data.&quot;We are new to the third-party display ad serving business, so we have not yet decided whether or how we would merge DoubleClick and Google data,&quot; Davidson&#39;s letter said.The merger would create &quot;numerous efficiencies&quot; not related to DoubleClick&#39;s data, Davidson added. &quot;Acquiring DoubleClick&#39;s expertise in display ad serving will assist Google in its efforts to design an integrated interface for advertisers to manage their texts and display advertising campaigns,&quot; the letter said. &quot;In addition, the acquisition will allow Google to provide advertisers with better metrics for the display ads the place in our advertising network.&quot;
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Blog: Google says it shows Sicko to employees and offers good health plans after being criticized for corporate blog blasting Michael Moore's "Sicko" movie
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Doctors in Massachusetts would be able to access patients&#39; records from any hospital or clinic in the state by computer under an initiative announced Monday.
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Google is introducing an online business software package designed to make it easier for people in the same organization to share documents and information.
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Five major US corporations have joined forces to create a "medical Internet" on which some 2.5 million workers can bring together their personal health records in one secure location, providing access to everything from prescriptions and cholesterol readings to medical histories.
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Responding to recent launch of Mahalo.com, Google clarifies that its search engine also uses human interaction.
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Health care advocates say government support of electronic data can improve care and prevent errors.
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For some reason (settling bar bets?), Google searchers have had one question on their minds.
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Congress urged to require standards in health care databases so private firms can exchange information as needed.
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Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it has fixed a software flaw that could allow hackers to view information contained on personal computers running the No.
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The U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs still aren&#39;t able to share complete electronic health records of military members and veterans despite working on a project for nine years, employees of the two agencies told a congressional committee Wednesday.While the two agencies have begun to share some text records, including discharge summaries and emergency-room reports, it won&#39;t be until 2008 before they can share vital signs of patients, laboratory data, and family histories, said Dr. Gerald Cross, principal deputy undersecretary of health in the VA&#39;s Veterans Health Administration.Officials from both agencies told the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations they&#39;re making good progress, but issues remain. &quot;The work to make data computable between two different health-care systems is very complex and requires complete standardization of data,&quot; Cross said.And the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has yet to see a comprehensive plan from the two agencies to share e-health records, added Valerie Melvin, director of human capital and management information systems issues for the GAO. The GAO has issued multiple reports since 2001 calling for VA and DOD to improve their health records sharing, she noted.The agencies have made progress on short-term projects to share data between some health-care centers, she said.&quot;These exchanges are limited, as significant work still remains to achieve the long-term goal of a comprehensive electronic medical record,&quot; Melvin said. It&#39;s unclear how a number of ad hoc projects will fit into an e-health record program, she said.Lawmakers stressed the importance of getting a record-sharing program in place as wounded military members come back from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and will get medical service from both agencies. &quot;This is a critically important issue,&quot; said Rep. Harry Mitchell, an Arizona Democrat and subcommittee chairman. &quot;Thousands of our servicemen and women require and will continue to require significant medical care.&quot;While lawmakers called for the agencies to move faster, the GAO noted some progress. The agencies have developed repositories for health data and are starting to populate them with data, a GAO report said. Seven DOD and VA sites are using an interface to the data repositories, the report said.&quot;Much work&quot; remains before the e-health records sharing system is fully operational, the report said.The DOD and VA effort has been plagued by several setbacks in the past nine years. An interface for a data repository was delayed for more than a year at one point, and in July 2002, the agencies split the project into two initiatives after multiple delays.In July, after nine years of work, the two agencies awarded a contract for a consultant to conduct a feasibility study for a common inpatient health record system.Together, the two agencies have spent more than $1.8 billion on health records initiatives since 1998, according to the GAO.But officials from both agencies expressed optimism. Asked if they could share all data within a year, three officials from the DOD and one from the VA said they expect that to happen.&quot;We are all working toward the same end -- to provide the highest-quality care to our nation&#39;s heroes, past and present,&quot; said Dr. Stephen Jones, the DOD&#39;s principal deputy assistant secretary for health affairs.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft announced plans to acquire health care search engine Medstory on Feb. 26, positioning the deal as a strategic move into the consumer health market. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker, best known for its Windows operating system and Office productivity tools, said that the deal not only immediately widens its footprint in the health care segment, but also reflects a long-term commitment to development of a "broader consumer health strategy." Financial details of the deal were not disclosed by either company. Medstory, based in Foster City, Calif., has posted a beta version of its health care search engine online, which promises to return more intelligent results than traditional Web scanning tools. By synthesizing user search requests within the context of health care, Medstory claims it can provide people with far more relevant information than they might uncover using generalized tools, such as Microsoft's own MSN engine. While the company has focused its efforts on health care thus far and claims to have loaded its engine with related information via close work with a number of medical organizations, the firm indicates on its Web site that it may eventually branch into other search arenas. Microsoft officials offered few details about its plans for Medstory but reported that the company's employees will join its Health Solutions Group, a recently launched division that oversees its product development efforts in the health care sector. If the deal is closed, Dr. Alain Rappaport, Medstory's founder and chief executive, will take on the role of general manager of health search in Microsoft's Health Solutions Group. In further positioning the deal, Microsoft cited increasing demand among consumers for health-related information online. The company pointed specifically to a study published in Oct. 2006 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project which found that 8 million people currently turn to the Web for such health care data with 22 percent of those responding to the report stating they find existing resources to be insufficient. "We're focused on enabling people to make the best decisions," said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president for health strategy in Microsoft's Health Solutions Group. "We were impressed with the ability of Medstoryâs unique technology to organize and surface the most relevant online health content, which empowers consumers who are trying to find the right information about an important life event." The Medstory deal does not represent Microsoft's initial foray into the health care field. In July 2006, the firm bought health care software maker Washington-based Azyxxi for an undisclosed amount of money. Azyxxi's applications specifically promise to track and update changes to patients' electronic records in real time. Microsoft also maintains a research and development partnership with Medstar Health, a nonprofit health care firm that operates seven hospitals in the Mid-Atlantic region. As part of the Medstory deal announcement, Microsoft launched its Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint, which it has tabbed as an "extensible architectural foundation" to streamline interoperability and integration between existing health care applications. The software blueprint will be offered at no charge to government and health care organizations worldwide, the company said. The software maker further identified the plan as a "real-world model" for health care companies attempting to adopt SOA technologies to help pull together disparate health care systems. In addition to the architecture, Microsoft introduced its Health Connection Engine, a set of Web services tools built around industry standards, that also promises to allow medical organizations to foster interoperability in their IT operations. As proof of its existing capabilities in the health care filed, Microsoft detailed work it has done with the Menninger Clinic, a Houston, Texas psychiatric hospital, to help the facility centralize its clinical information systems. Hospital officials claim to have cut paperwork by 25 percent already using a new internal system based on Microsoft's Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office InfoPath 2007.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. needs new medical privacy rules as the country moves toward greater use of IT to store health records, a group of health-care experts said Wednesday. "Thousands" of databases that contain U.S. residents' health records exist, and patients don't have any way to keep their personal information from being shared with third parties, said Dr. Deborah Peel, a psychiatrist and founder of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation. Private companies have been data-mining prescription records for years, she added. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996, sets security standards that health-care providers must follow, but the law leaves major gaps in privacy, Peel said at an electronic health-records privacy forum sponsored by public relations firm Dittus Communications. HIPAA gave many organizations with ties to health-care vendors, including offshore transcription vendors, insurance brokers and credit bureaus, authorization to use health care-records, she said. "Because of this confusion that HIPAA engendered, data is being exchanged and used for reasons that have nothing to do with people getting well," she said. "People think this is the wild west because of HIPAA, and every piece of data that's not nailed down can be used for some other purpose." While panelists at the forum seemed to agree that some type of privacy policy for e-health records is needed, they did not agree on how to accomplish it. Peel called for the U.S. government to create a national standard, but David Merritt, project director at the Center for Health Transformation and the Gingrich Group, called for private groups to develop privacy standards. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed moving a privacy commission to the private sector, but a bill sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, would keep that commission in the federal government. In addition, Kala Evelyn Ladenheim, program director for state health policy leadership at the National Conference of State Legislators, called on the federal government to allow states to develop their own privacy policies. Some states may create stronger protections than a national effort would, she said. But 50 state privacy policies would be difficult for health providers to comply with, countered Tom Wilder, senior regulatory counsel for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group representing health insurance providers. In most other industries, private organizations have developed privacy policies, Merritt said. He called on a public and private partnership to create privacy standards. "The government is really good at creating commissions and creating advisory boards ... and studying an issue," he said. "What the government is not good at, and what we shouldn't ask it to do, is to lead and to act." Peel disagreed, saying health-care providers would have conflicts when creating privacy standards, and HHS employees may not have the public's best interest in mind. "We would actually say the problem is that the government is not in the lead," she said. "Unelected officials, bureaucrats and conflicted industry representatives shouldn't be making decisions about privacy."