It’s official folks…The Google Personal Health Records (PHR) system that I blogged about a few days ago (which I have now affectionately nicknamed G’phr – pronounced like “gopher”) , was officially announced today (2/28) on the Google blog by Marissa Mayer.

Google Health aims to solve an urgent need that dovetails with our overall mission of organizing patient information and making it accessible and useful. Through our health offering, our users will be empowered to collect, store, and manage their own medical records online.

And so, the G’PHR system represents the first official Google Health product to be launched (aside from the Advisory Board and their Health Sales Team, of course). And going by what Mayer said in the post, it’s certainly not going to be the last… 

For the healthcare industry, online personal health records (PHRs) aren’t a new idea and, in some cases, online PHRs already exist for patients. Here’s what we think sets Google Health apart:

• Privacy and Security – Due to the sensitive and personal nature of the data that will be stored in Google Health, we need to conduct our health service with the same privacy, security, and integrity users have come to expect in all our services. Google Health will protect the privacy of your health information by giving you complete control over your data. We won’t sell or share your data without your explicit permission. Our privacy policy and practices have been developed in thoughtful collaboration with experts from the Google Health Advisory Council.

• Platform – One of the most exciting and innovative parts of Google Health is our platform strategy. We’re assembling a directory of third-party services that interoperate with Google Health. Right now, this means you’ll be able to automatically import information such as your doctors’ records, your prescription history, and your test results into Google Health in order to easily access and and control your data. Later, this platform strategy will mean that you will be able to interact with services and tools easily, and will be able to do things like schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and start using new wellness tools.

• Portability – Our Internet presence ultimately means that through Google Health, you will be able to have access and control over your health data from anywhere. Through the Cleveland Clinic pilot, we have already found great use-cases in which, for example, people spend 6 months of the year in Ohio, and 6 months of the year in Florida or Arizona, and will now be able to move their health data between their various health providers seamlessly and with total control. Previously, this would have required carrying paper records back and forth. With Google Health, the user can simply import the data from each medical facility and then choose to share it with the other facilities. It’s advances in data portability like this that we think can really make a difference in the quality of healthcare. The clearer and more comprehensive the information regarding your health becomes, the better your care will be.

• User focus – We aren’t doctors or healthcare experts, but one thing Google can create is a clean, easy-to-use user experience that makes managing your health information straightforward and easy.
  

As you can see, it appears that G’PHR is only the beginning of what they hope to build into a “platform” of Google health applications and tools that will be open to 3rd party vendors. I’m really excited to hear all this and it certainly affirms what I said in my previous post about the benefits of the “tech industry adopting health care“.

Privacy and security issues aside and thinking of current Google products, imagine a day when we are able to start treating and tracking our health like the way we watch stocks (BTW, I’ve always liked the Google Finance stock interface); where our health records are part of the chart and significant events that impact our health (e.g. switching medication, start a diet, etc.) are the little white flags with associated information on the side. How cool will that be?

I think this is only the beginning of many great things to come in this arena of health 2.0 (i.e. user generated health care). People can now take more control of their own health and not have to worry about the bureaucracy, lack of inter-operability, and antiquated technology within the medical/health world that may hold them back from getting better treatment. I think that we’re definitely reaching a tipping point now, especially with the weight of Google behind such an initiative.

Look out for a more in depth review on G’PHR, together with a surprise announcement, coming up soon, .

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry regarding TNS/Cymfony’s upcoming (2/28) webinar on “Unleashing the Power of Social Media“.

Well, that webinar isn’t even over yet and they’ve already announced their next one called “Lessons from the “Best-in-Class”, Generating Business Results from Social Media“. Here’s a brief synopsis and registration info for this FREE webinar:

LESSONS FROM THE “BEST-IN-CLASS”, GENERATING BUSINESS RESULTS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

Date: Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm EST

Register Today!

Social media has matured beyond early adopters to earn a place in mainstream marketing.  But since social media is an emerging specialty, formal business practices are still developing.

The Aberdeen Group interviewed over 250 companies to learn how “best in class” companies are using social media monitoring and analysis to improve their business results. Join Cymfony’s Jim Nail and Aberdeen Group’s Jeff Zabin on this free webinar to learn these practices and discuss how they can be applied to your business.

Here are some of the findings we’ll discuss:

• Best-in-Class companies are 4.2 times more likely than Laggards to improve their year-over-year customer retention rates, 84% vs. 20% respectively.

• Best-in-Class companies are over 680% more likely to improve their ability to predict customer behavior compared to Laggards.

• Best-in-Class companies are 3.8 times more likely than Laggards to have defined metrics for measuring new product development opportunities. In fact, 35% of Laggards have no plans to implement such metrics.

All participants will receive a free copy of this 33 page report.

Register Now:
https://cymfony.webex.com/cymfony/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=759262788

In October 2007, Microsoft announced their entry into the health care arena with the launch of HealthVault — a web-based application to “…collect, store, and share the health information critical to your family’s well-being.” Basically, an online medical/ health record system.

Not to be outdone by the folks in Redmond, Google is now preparing to launch a web-based “personal health records” system associated with your Google account. Here’s the semi-official word from a Google Blog post (by a Google engineer, nonetheless). And here are some excerpts from the NY Times article:

The pilot project…will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google’s new service, which won’t be open to the general public.

Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that’s also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.

Google views its expansion into health records management as a logical extension because its search engine already processes millions of requests from people trying to find about more information about an injury, illness or recommended treatment…

The clinic already keeps the personal health records of more than 120,000 patients on its own online service called MyChart. Patients who transfer the information to Google would still be able to get the data quickly even if they were no longer being treated by the Cleveland Clinic…

The Cleveland Clinic decided to work with Google ”to create a more efficient and effective national health care system,” said C. Martin Harris, the medical center’s chief information officer…

It’s not clear how Google intends to make money from its health service. The company sometimes introduces new products without ads just to give people more reason to visit its Web site, betting the increased traffic will boost its profits in the long run.

According to The Health Care Blog, CEO Eric Schmidt will officially launch the Google Health Records system at the upcoming HIMSS conference.

Although there is plenty of concern about privacy issues surrounding even more personal data being stored by the search giant, I think it is definitely a step in the right direction for both Google and the Health Care industry.

For one thing, the medical and health care industries (including pharma) are just SOOOO far behind when it comes to adopting technology, that it’s actually nice to see the reverse for a change (i.e. tech industry “adopting” health care).

And for another thing, my limited knowledge of eHealth and eMedical Records (EHR/ EMR) leads me to believe that there is no real standardized platform that they operate on and therefore it is difficult to transfer information/records from one system to another (which kinda defeats the purpose, no?).

Having attended quite a number of medical conferences over the last few years, it seems like the number of booths being occupied by different third-party EHR/EMR companies just keeps growing and growing (probably each with their own proprietary system, too).

So, with tech giants like Google and Microsoft on board, we may be one step closer to defining a universal standard whereby our health records can be shared between different systems and different medical institutions.

Furthermore, with a web-based application, there’s no need to buy expensive licenses or install proprietary software that needs to be constantly updated and that is probably less elegantly designed than most Web 2.0-ish web apps. Instead, any device that can access the Internet can access these records as well.

Who knows? Maybe some day soon you’ll be accessing your medical records through an app on your iPhone!?! Or perhaps it may even be integrated into Google’s new mobile operating system, Android? I’m certainly looking forward to what the future holds…

As alluded to in my previous post, I pod-faded for a while in 2007, but made a resolution to come back into action this year (2008). So, after almost more than a year off from podcasting, here it is folks (finally): The return of the podcast…Now in it’s brand new shiny re-launched package called: Med 2.0 Radio.

In this first episode of Med 2.0 Radio, I interview Len Starnes, Head of E-Business, Primary Care, Bayer Schering Pharma AG about:
- His experience launching an international Multiple Sclerosis community forum
- Global regulatory issues with a pharma-sponsored forum for patients
- Any Web 2.0 considerations for the future
- How Web 2.0 can be applied in the health/pharma industry and where it is going

Here’s the RSS feed and the iTunes subscrition chicklet if you want to subscribe directly from this post:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/med20radio 

NOTE TO ETech@Work / ETechCast LISTENERS:

If you are still subscribed to the “etechcast.com” (i.e. feeds.feedburner.com/etechcast) RSS feed, please unsubscribe from that and switch to the above RSS feed or click on the iTunes auto subscription button.

For those of you who are interested in experiencing a scientific event/conference in Second Life (virtual world), the Nature Publishing Group’s Island, Second Nature, is hosting a special educational event entitled “Mermaids or Manatees: Myth & Reality” on Monday, FEB 18th 2008.

Having studied to be a marine biologist for the first half of my college life (I eventually switched to neuroscience, but got a minor in marine science), I am very excited about this and I’m looking forward to attending it.

If you haven’t already downloaded and installed Second Life (a.k.a. 2L) and created your “alter ego”, you’ll need to do that first before you can attend this virtual event, so go to the 2L website and get started…

Here are details on the event:

Title: Mermaids or Manatees: Myth & Reality

Abstract: Do you have a clue as to what a manatee is, what they eat, or where they live? Why are they on the endangered species list and what are some of the issues that have put them there? For answers to these, and other questions you may have about manatees, please join us as CeAire and Hawc Decosta give an educational presentation on “Meet the Manatee”, information about the real life organization Save the Manatee Club, and ways you can help save this gentle sea cow.

Date: Monday 18th February 2008

Time: 5pm GMT, midday EST, 9am PST/SLT

Location: Second Nature Island (this will bring you to the 2L teleport page)

Contact: Joanna Wombat

This event is free and open to all: voice will be used, so get there early if you need help setting it up or IM Joanna Wombat beforehand.

Related Links:

• Save the Manatee
• IUCN Red List species information
• ‘Snooty Cam’ at the Parker Manatee Aquarium
• Recent article reference development and dugongs in Japan
• Recent article concerning public comments solicited for swimming with manatees rules

For those of you interested in the application of social media for business purposes, there’s a FREE upcoming webinar on FEB 28th, 2008.

The company sponsoring the webinar isTNS/Cymfony — a market research firm that provides “brand awareness” through multiple channels, including social and consumer generated media (similar to a Nielsen BuzzMetrics). TNS/Cymfony also plays in the pharma space and I was first made aware of them when I saw their booth at Digital Pharma 2007.

Here are the details and reigstration info for the webinar :

HOW LEADING BRANDS ARE UNLEASHING THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

New Research by TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony Reveals 80% of Marketers Around the World Participate in Social Media but Still Face Barriers to Successful Implementation

Date: Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm EST

Register Today!

This free webinar will discuss the results of a global study on how companies are planning, implementing and evaluating social media tools.

Consumers have taken control of brands, but has the business world figured out smart ways to use social media in brand and product marketing?  To find out, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony surveyed 70+ marketers around the globe about their experiences incorporating all types of social media tools in their marketing strategies. During this Webinar, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony will summarize the findings of this study and discuss the insights with participants.

Key highlights of the study include:

• Companies take social media seriously. Half of respondents stressed the importance of monitoring social media at the executive level with a significant allocation of resources.  The most savvy users of social media tools see social media as an opportunity that must be grasped with a sense of urgency.

• Companies grasp the importance of social media analysis. Close to two-thirds of global respondents, and 88 percent in the U.S, said reading and analyzing social media would have a lot of impact on the future of their businesses.

• The immaturity of social media is a barrier to implementation. US respondents said the greatest barriers to acceptance or implementation of social media in their organizations is lack of best practices (32 percent) followed by lack of senior management commitment (24 percent).  Other regions indicated that lack of controls, standardization, and lack of time and resources.
• Marketers want to talk about it. In fact, 95 percent of the savviest marketers in this study believe it would be effective to gather colleagues together to study and learn from social media.

This interactive discussion will be led by Jim Nail, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony.

Register Now:
www.SocialMediaInBusiness.com