Google Teams With the Cleveland Clinic - Beware!
Personal Health Records (PHRs) can be an important part of your successful medical care. But proceed with caution.
PHRs are a way of keeping records, often in a digital format. They are differentiated from EMRs, electronic medical records, because they are usually maintained by us patients ourselves. EMRs are systems created and maintained by healthcare professionals.
I'm a fan of patients keeping their records and updating them as necessary. There is no way all that information, a lifetime of interface with the medical system, can be memorized. In particular, when a patient is sick or hurting, even if it was memorized, it won't be shared as it should be. Too often those digital details are important for current health woes.
But I am NOT a fan of making access to these very personal records easy for those who shouldn't have access. And thus my beef with Google.
Many months ago, it was announced that Google would create a PHR application to "allow" patients to keep their personal health information online. Google's hope is that by making such an application available for free, Google will figure out some other way of making money from it.
And so it was with interest I read about this new partnership between the Cleveland Clinic and Google. Hey, if you're going to roll out something new to make people "trust" you, then partnering with the Cleveland Clinic isn't a bad way to begin. Even Microsoft's Health Vault and Revolution Health didn't think that one up.
Believe me, soon Google will roll this application out for the public. Do not take the bait. It will cost you dearly even though they the service will be promoted as "free." The real cost will be your loss of privacy.
Comments
I am a medical doctor. I see patients every day. Including the Emergency Room where I work.
Because of that, I deeply understand, not only theoretically but as part of my daily experience that patient-physician relationship is the key for the quality of health-care.
A patient must trust his doctor. If there is no confidence, we lost a lot (patients and docs).
Saying that, privacy of data becomes a real importante issue. A patient that talks about his sexual activities, extramatrimonial affairs, fears, weakness, mental health… should be sure that the doctor will not reveal that information to third parties.
During thousands years physician have follow this hippocrates oath sencente: What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
So at the moment I designed the keyose service, I have a very clear idea: privacy must be the priority number one!
Storing thousands of personal health records electronically has a big risk. What if someone unauthorized (a cracker for instance) access to the database? No matter how much money or effort you invest in the security of a system. There is no 100% secure system in the world. And the health information of thousand of people is very attractive to so many people (government, insurers, bank, private companies, criminals devoted to extortion…).
There are many companies entering the business of eHealth. Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault are just the two most known examples. As a medical doctor I am really concerned about the privacy of data. 90% of UK physicians and German doctors think like me.
Keyose was designed in such a way that no personal information is stored. We do not need your name, email or identity. And more importantly: We do not want it.
I would never put my personal, my patients or my relatives health information in a online database that contains the identity of the patients. You can trust me!
Dr. Julio Bonis
Trisha,
Thanks for your article. You are right. Google is not the place to store medical information. Even so patients need to take control of their health care delivery and their health information.
I also agree with Dr. Bonis, about security and privacy. However, I believe the solution is somewhere between and far left (Google using your information for targeted advertising) and the far right (Dr Bonis placing security above usefulness).
1. Forget what you see in the movies about high-tech hacking schemes. Over 95% of security breaches happen because someone shared their username and password or left their access key visible to the public. Don’t forget that a would be hacker doesn’t need to get everyone’s information to be harmful - just yours!
2. Just because a personel can get to the application that serves your personal health records over the internet, Doesn’t mean the database is accessible from the internet.
3. Check outOnFile.com for a real solution to storing your health information.
Shawn
This is just another way our freedoms are beginning to disappear. It’s unfathomable to me that more people aren’t outraged over even the IDEA of this, let alone its current piloting of in Cleveland Clinic. I guess they aren’t finding enough loopholes in the current HIPPA law at a fast enough rate to screw the American people, so a complete bypass is necessary- that will end privacy completely, and at a very fast speed. Bet the powers to be are kicking themselves that they didn’t think of this sooner.