Google health records service opens

Google's online filing cabinet for medical records has opened to the public, giving users instant electronic access to their health histories while reigniting privacy concerns.

Called Google Health, the service lets users link information from a handful of pharmacies and care providers, including Quest Diagnostics. Google plans to add more.

Similar offerings include Microsoft's HealthVault and Revolution Health, which is backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case.

Google Health differentiates itself from the pack through its user interface and things such as the public availability of its application program interface, or API, said Marissa Mayer, the Google executive overseeing the service.

Mary Adams, 45, a Cleveland Clinic patient who participated in the Google Health pilot, said that she was initially concerned about the privacy of her medical information.

Still, she felt safe enough to enrol and has been using the service for about six months, linking it with an online health management tool from the Cleveland Clinic and adding information on prescriptions and doctors to her online profile. "I hate pieces of paper lying around my house, so I love the fact that I can log on with my normal Google login info and see everything at a glance," she said, adding that with its public availability she will try to get her sister to use it.

The service, still a non-final "beta" version, does not include adverts. But Ms Mayer said Google does not plan to start placing them to support the site. A search box on Google Health pages leads to standard Google search results pages, where there are advertisements.

Besides importing records from providers, users can enhance their password-protected profiles with details such as allergies and medications, they can search for doctors and they can locate Web-based health-related tools.

Mountain View, California-based Google views its expansion into health records management as logical because its search engine already processes millions of requests from people trying to find information about injuries, illnesses and recommended treatments.

Before this public launch, Google stored medical records for a few thousand patient volunteers at the non-profit Cleveland Clinic. The health venture provides fodder for privacy watchdogs who believe Google already has too much about the interests and habits of its users in its logs of search requests and its vaults of email archives.

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