google working on a health site? allowing you to:
- Build online health profiles that belong to you
- Download medical records from doctors and pharmacies
- Get personalized health guidance and relevant news
- Find qualified doctors and connect to time-saving services
- Share selected information with family or caregivers
i think it’s interesting on a few levels. a) microsoft is trying to launch their health vault, but let’s face it, who the hell wants to store all their medical history on microsoft’s servers? you know hackers will be dying to get into that and start publicizing the fact that you had strep in 2002. so while google will probably be accused of catch-up, to me, the real interesting piece is there is a very common acknowledgement that the medical field is a terribly wasteful one, in terms of managing and leveraging data for the betterment of patients and more. i was just at the doctor with the boys and their entire history is on paper, handwritten notes, by varying doctors, in a giant manilla folder – and we’ve moved, so they have probably had a number of doctors. so while my wife got their records sent across from doctor to doctor, clearly, we have no invisibility into their history, beyond our own memories. and doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital – nothing is shared, either permission based or otherwise.
how annoying is it to have every doctor or dentist make you fill out endless forms about your prior history, your allergies, parents medical histories and so on. wouldn’t it be nice if you could just “allow” a specific doctor, dentist, or practice to access your entire history – maybe that “allow” is something you review annually. does it feel safe that your dentist asks you “any allergies?” before giving you some anesthetic? wouldn’t it smarter, safer, and more efficient, for the dentist (or their assistant) to look up your medical profile with the most recent blood tests? i don’t carry my blood test results with me, do you? but if you have some condition, anyone treating you should know this.
this is most pronounced when you go to the ER.. hopefully you never need to, but if in an ambulance, or unconscious – who tells the EMT or doctors that you recently took a certain prescription for an infection? noone. i have asthma, and anyone treating me should be able to access that, without asking me – what do you take? (albuterol). how often? (before i exercise). how long have you had this? (since childhood). i’ve been asked those questions by dentists, doctors, and PA’s.
speaking of which, on my last trip to the doctor, as well as my wife and kids’ last trips – we all saw PA’s. what ever happened to seeing a doctor? do i need to have cancer or some terminal disease to see a doctor? even then, i’d see an oncologist, not a physician. are the “regular” doctors all on strike or out of work? too busy to see just me for a check-up? are we compromising our well being by entrusting our diagnosis to a bunch of junior PA’s?
man, i don’t know where all that came from, but it felt good 