Microsoft, GOOG Boost Health Records Online
A search on Google (GOOG) - Get Report for personal health records (PHRs) or electronic health records (EHRs) results in excess of 13 million hits, showing just how important the issue of medical records is to the e-generation.
Lack of familiarity, privacy and security concerns and lack of connectivity to medical professionals are some of the reasons people weren't using the programs, but now, they're starting to take hold, and have the potential to save lives.
Two products are likely to change the landscape. Last October,
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
launched
HealthVault
. Last week,
launched its competing offering,
Google Health
.
The products have differing approaches. Microsoft's
allows users to access multiple suppliers of health databases that people can then customize to fit their needs and create their own unique PHRs, while
has taken ownership of the entire process to create a familial look to its PHR offering.
Google Health
or
HealthVault
may not have the best products, but our familiarity with the brands might be the key to jump starting the PHR revolution after the disappointing earlier attempts.
Other suppliers of PHRs may benefit from this potentially enormous market, such as existing offerings from
WebMD
(WBMD)
and
Revolution Health
.
According to a recent
National Center for Health Statistics
study, there were 23,538 accidental deaths in 2005 as a result of drug poisoning, second only to automobile crashes for causes of accidental death. The number is rising at an alarming 11.6% each year.
A PHR could help significantly reduce that number, by checking for potential interactions between your drugs, allergies and conditions every time you add more data, and providing medical personnel with access to the information.
The main problem is getting your medical records inputted. The links might be there, and in some cases there are partnerships between the professionals and the supplier of the PHR, but it isn't clear how many people can get their data uploaded.
Even the companies that offer PHRs to the holders of their health insurance policies, such as
WellPoint
(WLP)
and
Aetna
(AET)
are not exempt from these limitations.
Interestingly, IDG News Service reports,
Aetna's
CEO criticized Google Health and HealthVault at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology symposium last Wednesday, arguing that they had no interest in developing them to improve health care.
Perhaps the insurers fear real competition in this market.
The majority of the medical profession is years behind implementing the technology available for electronic record-keeping. This is in part due to fear of change, cost benefit concerns and inertia. It has even been reported that it is also because doctor errors in prescribing drugs can become instantly highlighted and corrected, which could lead to professional embarrassment.
Government is even getting into the action now to move things along.
Last month an initiative to develop a statewide Health Information Exchange project with Microsoft as a technology partner was launched in Maryland. It's expected to result in a proposal for the state in nine months and key is one of the requirements that mean that the HIE will be compatible with PHRs.
And the Department of Health and Human Services plans to start a Medicare project that will introduce certified Electronic Health Records, the records that medical professionals will use for recording patient data, for 12 community partners over a five-year trial period starting in the fall.
America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield are collaborating over creating PHR standards for the members of their organizations that will enable them to be transportable from provider to provider.
A majority of concerns over PHRs, and EHRs for that matter, are with respect to privacy and security. The truth is that all data has to be protected and personal data such as health information, and much more could be maintained on a PHR. We should be concerned about how it has been secured, and how it will be used.
Normally, health information is protected by strict laws under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Unfortunately this law does not currently apply to HealthVault and Google Health, and there are other significant loopholes in the act.
Draft legislation to address these recognized problems have been around for more than three years, so it will no doubt take some time before anything becomes law.
So, what does all this mean?
Microsoft and Google might have launched their products, and they might be very good (eventually), but it is an imperative that multiple EHR providers can provide their data to the PHRs before there will be any significant take up and use of their offerings.
Just like other PHR providers they are lacking in something, and in this case it is the all important access to data. Not that it is their fault, but the medical and legislative worlds need to play catchup.
In the meantime, by all means use the tools PHRs offer, but remember that the biggest benefits lie in the future. Just when that will be is anybody's guess.
Gavin Magor joined TheStreet.com Ratings in 2008, and is the senior analyst responsible for assigning financial strength ratings to health insurers and supporting other health care-related consumer products, including Medicare supplement insurance, long-term care insurance and elder care information. He conducts industry analysis in these areas. He has more than 20 years' international experience in credit risk management, commercial lending and analysis, working in the U.K., Sweden, Mexico, Brazil and the U.S. He holds a master's degree in business administration from The Open University in the U.K.