Google Health (Personal Health Record) Launches for Everybody Today

Screenshot of Google Health

Google Health is an online service which provides personal health record (PHR). The website is live and anybody can sign in, with a Google account, of course. It looks friendlier and easier to use than the competing offering by Microsoft called Health Vault. See the Google Health tour here.

A few excerpts from the "About Google Health" page are listed below:

Google Health allows you to store and manage all of your health information in one central place. And it's completely free. All you need to get started is a Google user name and password.

Why use Google Health:

- Keep your doctors up-to-date
- Stop filling out the same paperwork every time you see a new doctor
- Avoid getting the same lab tests done over and over again because your doctor cannot get copies of your latest results
- Don't lose your medical records because of a move, change in jobs or health insurance

With Google Health, you manage your health information — not your health insurance plan or your employer. You can access your information anywhere, at any time.

With Google Health, you can:


Create a health profile

- Build online health profiles: you can enter your health conditions, medications, allergies, and lab results into your Google Health profile

- Review trusted information on diseases and conditions


Search for doctors and hospitals

References:
Google Health launched. Google Blogoscoped.
Google Health: A View From the Inside. Wachter's World.
Image source: Google Health.

Related:
Would you like to see Dr. Google or Dr. Microsoft for your personal health records?
Adam Bosworth, Google Health Architect, Leaves Google
The Ultimate Guide to Google Health: 60+ Tips and Resources. NursingDegree.net.
Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health - The 'Coke and Pepsi' of Online Health (PHR). ReadWriteWeb, 10/2008.

Updated: 10/16/2008