Everybody wants to jump on the health information bandwagon.

Both Microsoft and Google are close to launching their respective attempts to grab a nice seat right at the front of the bandwagon.

Here’s some of the first screenshots of Weaver, Google’s codename for their health information storage program.  This story comes from Blogoscoped.com.

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Google Health, codename “Weaver”, is Google’s planned health
information storage program. Google’s Vice President of Engineering
Adam Bosworth lobbies for the program for quite a while now. Adam said
the current US health care system is challenged when it comes to
“supporting caregivers and communicating between different medical
organizations.” Adam went on to say that people “need the medical
information that is out there and available to be organized and made
accessible to all … Health information should be easier to access and
organize, especially in ways that make it as simple as possible to find
the information that is most relevant to a specific patient’s needs.”
Adam adds that this – making information accessible – happens to be
along Google’s mission.

The New York Times today writes
that “about 20 percent of the [US] patient population have computerized
records – rather than paper ones – and the Bush administration has
pushed the health care industry to speed up the switch to electronic
formats. But these records still tend to be controlled by doctors,
hospitals or insurers. A patient moves to another state, for example,
but the record usually stays.” But, the NYT continues, initiatives like
the one by Google “would give much more control to individuals, a trend
many health experts see as inevitable.” A prototype of Google Health
has now been shown “to health professionals and advisers,” the NYT
reports.

To find out just what you might be able
to see in a future Google Health service, take a look at these
screenshots from Google’s prototype which have been sent in here. As
prototypes go, certain approaches of the program may change, and the
specific interface may or may not be kept like this in a final release.
“We’ll make mistakes and it will be a long-range march,” the NYT quotes
Adam Bosworth.

There are two tabs to be seen in Google Health: Profiles and
Medical Contacts. The profiles tab has several sub-sections, including
“Services and health guide,” “Conditions & symptoms,”
“Medications,” “Age, sex, height…” and “Family history.”
A privacy policy at the bottom disclaims that “Any information you
enter will remain private. Google will not share it with anyone without
your permission.”

This “Conditions & symptoms” dialog includes an auto-completion
feature, just like other input boxes in Google Health. You enter
“head”, and Google suggests “Head and Neck Angioedema”, “Head Injury”,
“Head Pain” and more.

The “Services and health guide” section reads: “Get the most out of
Google Health - If your medical providers or pharmacy offer secure
downloading of medical records, you can find and add your records to a
profile. You can also browse for websites that connect securely to
Google Health and provide services for managing your health care.”
Under the headline “Google health guide” this explanation follows:
“When you add some information to your profile, Google Health will
search trusted medical sources and create a health guide targeted for
you. … Google Health will check for relevant updates to your guide
whenever you add new information to the profile.” You can use the
health guide, Google writes, to learn about drug interactions,
treatments, tests and preventive measures.
A side box warns, “Be sure to discuss questions about your medical care
with your doctor or medical provider before making changes,” and a
footnote reads, “Built in collaboration with www.safe-med.com”.

The “Allergies” tab. The “Add an Allergy” box suggests “e.g. penicillin.”

You can add a procedure or surgery on this page. As an example, Google provides “appendectomy.”

The “Test results” section. You can add e.g. “cholesterol LDL”.

The “Add an immunication” interface does not allow free-style text
input, but restricts you to a selection box instead. Available entries
include “Diphtheria, tetanus toxoids, acellular pertussis vaccine
(DTaP)” or “Hepatitis A vaccine.”

The “Age, sex, height…” page collects various personal
information such as date of birth, gender, ethnicity, blood type,
weight, or smoking habits. One of the questions asked is, “Do you drink
alcoholic beverages?” Another question is, “Have you smoked more than
20 cigarettes in your lifetime?” Google explains that they ask for your
date of birth to “keep your age up to date and show the most relevant
guidance.”

The “Family history” dialog lets you add a relative and their
respective conditions. The selection box includes entries like
“Husband”, “Wife”, “Mother”, “Father”, “Son”, and Google provides the
condition example “diabetes.”

On this page, you can “add a doctor”. Our current unnamed sample
patient has no medical contacts. You can search the “Google Doctor
Directory” to find contacts.

Topics: Individual Health Insurance, Individual Plans |

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