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The technology giants Google and Microsoft are entering the growing market of electronic medical record-keeping just as the government is accelerating its own efforts to apply information technology to healthcare.
Broader use of health information technology, and electronic medical records in particular, is a centerpiece of healthcare reform proposals from policymakers of all political stripes, from President Bush to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). The three leading presidential contenders, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), also back these technologies.
The Bush administration, led by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt, has been working with technology companies and healthcare providers since 2004 to establish interoperable technical standards for storing and transmitting personal medical information. To the same end, numerous lawmakers, including Kennedy and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), are pushing legislation to promote health IT.
Meanwhile, the technology sector has been moving forward.
Last month, Google unveiled the first phase of its Google Health application. The company partnered with the prestigious Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to provide personal health records for its patients through a Web-based platform with an appearance and interface similar to its e-mail and news reader applications. Google CEO Eric Schmidt personally announced the product’s launch in a speech at a health IT conference in Florida. Google Health is designed to allow patients, medical providers, pharmacies and others to submit information into the record. Microsoft preceded Google when it launched its HealthVault personal health records application last October.
These two rivals are not alone in their efforts to command this lucrative market. Outfits like Revolution Health , a company started by AOL founder Steve Case, and WebMD are also offering personal health records. Other technology players like IBM and Verizon also provide or are developing similar applications.
The administration believes that technology companies’ interest in electronic medical records signifies that its efforts have advanced health IT, said Christina Pearson, assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS.
As a result of the HHS-led activities, “this issue has moved forward … [and] helped give [the private sector] the spark that we hoped,” she said.
Pearson also noted that the federal government, through Medicare and Medicaid, will be able to drive the adoption of uniform standards by healthcare providers.
The vice president of the American College of Physicians , Michael Barr, agreed that the government still has a role to play even as these companies are positioning themselves in the market for electronic medical records.
Uniform standards for sharing medical information still need to be established because healthcare providers are responsible for maintaining complete “medical legal records” for their patients, Barr said. “They’re working on one end of it and not the other,” he said of Google, Microsoft and the other technology companies.
While useful to patients, “these [personal health records] that Microsoft and Google are providing will not replace the medical charts … for documentation purposes,” Barr added.
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