Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Google Launches Online Health Info Service

Google unveiled Google Health Monday, a new U.S. health information service that allows users to store organize and manage their medical records and personal health information online.

One of its many partners, iHealth said today that it integrated its solution with Google Health to help patients identify and select physicians who are iHealth users and offer important medical services online.

iHealth, is an online suite of medical practice web sites and secure patient email services provided by Medem, a healthcare IT company founded by leading medical societies, including the American Medical Association (AMA).

The iHealth collaboration with Google allows Google Health users to share information in their Google Health profile with doctors using the iHealth web product. This in turn helps keep doctors up-to-date on current medical conditions and medications. Physicians who offer the iHealth service to their patients will be listed in the Google Health “Find a Doctor” feature as integrated with Google Health.

“Improving communication and strengthening the patient-physician bond is a key goal for Medem and its participating medical societies,” explained Robert Musacchio, PhD, chairman of the board for Medem and senior vice president, Publishing and Business Services for the AMA.

“The collaboration between Google and Medem to better connect patients and physicians online is an important step in furthering this goal.”

A recent Harris Interactive/Wall Street Journal survey confirms that patients prefer physician practices with an online presence, finding that 77% of patients want to schedule appointments online, and 75% want to email their physician’s practice.

“Our objective at Medem is to provide a suite of online services for physician practices that help them improve patient communication, reduce phone calls, enhance marketing and reduce liability,” noted Medem CEO, Edward Fotsch, MD.

“The integration between Google Health and practices that offer iHealth may help millions of consumers identify, select and reward practices who have quality web sites and offer a higher level of patient connectivity and service.”