John Sharp is an IT Manager for a major medical center in Northeast Ohio. Areas of expertise include: ehealth, personal health records, Web 2.0 technologies, social media and project management. He is active in the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society and the American Medical Informatics Association. The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author.
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Posts Tagged ‘Google’
Google Health Partnership with the Cleveland Clinic
February 22, 2008
In a joint announcement today, Google and the Cleveland Clinic have launched what is being called a pilot program with the Clinic’s MyChart PHR users to connect to Google Health. On the Official Google Blog, some of the technical aspects are noted such as the GData protocol and the AuthSub interface to create what is being called a Continuity of Care Record. On the Cleveland Clinic side, it is seen as a way to push the national dialogue on electronic medical records and support national access, consumer empowerment and 24/7 accessibility/portability. The pilot will be offered on an invitation only basis to 10,000 MyChart users, a good start. Looking forward to seeing this expand in the next few months.
he bottom line issue is will consumers trust Google to store their medical records? My guess is the there is a 50/50 split on this – those who think it is adequately secure and those who are suspicious or fearful.
Insights into working at Google
February 18, 2008
Written by a Google employee, this blog post give an unusual insight into some insights about working there. And its not just the gourmet food. It includes things like microefficiencies, the scale of your impact, brilliant coworkers, empowerment and working for a green, caring company. All this after only 11 months at the company. In many ways Google has been a model for other software development companies and departments within companies. How much of their culture can be mimicked? Not all for sure. But certainly some of these aspects can benefit any firm or development group.
One Step Closer to Google Health Announcement
February 1, 2008
In a posting on the HIMSS website promoting Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Keynote presentation at the annual conference at the end of February, it notes that he will speak on “how these technological innovations can be applied to Google’s new venture in the healthcare IT market.” A Google spokesperson stated, “there is no better place to apply this mission than to health.” This will be a first-time presence for Google in a meaningful way at the national conference of 20,000+ Health IT folk other than a small presence for their search appliance in the past.
Also on the bill is Steve Case on Revolution Health. It looks like Web 2.0’s time has come to this platform after minor roles for “Meet the Bloggers” in previous years.
More News on Google Health
January 25, 2008
According to Googling Google, there is now a login screen for Google Health, unfortunately, it is not working yet. Potential features sound useful:
- health profiles
- download medical records
- personalized health search and news (already available to some extent)
- find doctors
- share info with family members.
No launch date yet but Eric Schmitt is speaking at HIMSS at the end of February – an opportunity for an announcement?
Google to Announce Google Health Next Year
October 19, 2007
In Information Week, there is a report of an announcement from Google (Marissa Mayer) at a Web 2.0 conference that Google will announce its offering early next year.
“Google has developed a prototype online platform for its health offering that incorporates personal medical records, health care-related search features, diet and exercise regimens, a localized ‘find a doctor’ application, and other elements.”
And, “While the focus will be on improving health care and making records more accessible and portable for patients, Google will also improve life for physicians.”
As the article notes, Microsoft appears to have been first to market with a health product but it will be a fair comparison to be made once Google Health is finally launched.
Adam Bosworth Leaving Google?
September 12, 2007
According to Blogoscoped. No reason yet and how will this affect Google Health which he has led up to this point?
Adam Bosworth on the Comeback of AJAX
February 3, 2007
As reported by eWeek, Adam Bosworth spoke in New York City on “Why AJAX Failed (Then Succeeded).” It is an interesting tale of how the physics was not ready when AJAX was first developed while now it is revolutionizing programming, particularly on the web. Although the article does not mention the term, it is a form of convergence of Internet speed (e.g. DSL in many homes), reintroduction of a programming tool abandoned for several years, and novel uses of the tool in Web 2.0 websites such as Google Maps.
Is the point of this that no technology should be abandoned forever but its introduction may be a matter of timing.
Palo Alto Medical Foundation blog
January 17, 2007
PAMF is a medical institution in bordered by Stanford University and Silicon Valley so it is no surprise that they are on the cutting edge of Web 2.0. The institution’s blog includes postings about once a week with a combination of health information (How often should I visit my doctor?) and institution news. It uses Google’s blogger and has a link to their Google Coop subscription page. There are also links to PAMF podcasts and Urgent Care wait time, the most interesting use of a blog for health care. I have two friends who work there, Enoch Choi, a physician in Urgent Care and Haya R. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Research Institute and formerly of Cleveland, Ohio.
Diagnosis Google Style
November 27, 2006
Lots of buzz on the British Medical Journal article on Googling for a diagnosis–use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study. The study showed “Google searches revealed the correct diagnosis in 15 (58%).
The comments on the BMJ website related to this article are equally interesting: “Pubmedding is better than googling” and Google Medicine – proceed with caution and this quote: “Google’s accuracy of 58%, reported by Tang and Ng, is less than that achieved by older generation rules based Diagnosis Decision Support System [3] and will not engender widespread adoption.” In fact, would you be confident of this kind of percentage.
Perhaps a more realistic test would be to give two physican panels test cases and two different tools sets – a decision support tool like Micromedix and the other just Google and see how accurate they become.
At any rate, the article provokes more discussion and research.
