Google Health – Create Your Own Electronic Health Record
Thanks to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, many people have heard about the latest plans to implement a central, digital health record system for doctors and health care providers. If this concept is realized on a national scale in the United States, it will give Americans access to more accurate health care, and will avoid medical complications that are a result of incomplete health history information. This represents a big opportunity for technology to become even further fused into the medical industry, and if you’re not willing to wait for the government to get its act together, you can start your own electronic records at Google Health.
Many people are familiar with the Google name, which has revolutionized the way that people search the internet for information and how businesses market themselves on the internet for many years. However, you might not be familiar with Google Health, and that’s because it is still in its beta stages, and not being marketing to the world yet. Basically, this system will give individuals to take their health records into their own hands, and create their own electronic record just as if they were creating a profile on a social media networking site.
One of the biggest benefits of a nationwide electronic health history database would be that doctors would have access to a whole lifetime’s worth of information about illnesses that you’ve had in the past, diseases that run in your family, treatments that have been used, and medications that you’re currently on. If used properly a system like Google Health would provide physicians with a one stop shop for all the medical information that’s ever been recorded about you. This will help them to prevent drug interactions, and allergic reactions to medications as well as to ascertain a diagnosis about what’s going on with you, based on your family history.
It’s important to point out that right now, Google Health is a completely voluntary service, and if you are interested in using it, you will need to manually enter your health information, or to access existing health records by logging into accounts at health services providers that have already become partners of the service. It’s also important to point out that Google is not considered to be an entity covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which means that it does not have to comply with HIPAA privacy laws.
