Well, at least Google tries. We have to give them credit for that, and for this very first step — which I honestly hope is just that (as others have suggested giving Google the benefit of the doubt) — it’s a doosey. They’ve gone and created an advisory council to help guide them in their thinking in health.
But in a very traditional, Big-Company-Hey-Maybe-a-Little-Evil-Won’t-Hurt-Us way, they didn’t fill such a council with patients and patient advocates. Instead, they filled it with doctors and doctor insiders (and, of course, a representative of Wal-Mart!), because who better to help Google figure out health than docs?!
Gee, I dunno. How about the people who’ve been the unhappy recipients of such a system for the past 3 or 4 decades?
Sandy over at Junk Food Science has some immediate concerns about the road this leads Google down, namely one of censorship and not helping people find all health information:
Screening out “irrelevant” and “unhelpful” information? That sounds like a euphemism for censorship.
I also blogged about the Google Goof on World of Psychology.
A for effort, D for implementation.
At least one of the experts on Google’s new board is Sharon Terry. Although she’s now an expert, she got started as a parent-patient-advocate. You can read about her in e-patients: how they can help us heal health care. Now, if only Google would include more patients and their advocates!
If you want to read more about Google’s plans, check out this “e-CareManagement blog” post which covers:
The Current Market Structure for Personal Health Information (PHI)
Google Health’s Anticipated Technology Model
Three Leverage Points
GH Will Be Disruptive
Concluding Thoughts
http://e-caremanagement.com/connecting-the-dotsgoogle-health-promises-to-create-and-dominate-next-generation-phrs/
Many bloggers are talking about Google and Health. I have just recollect some of them at http://www.ictconsequences.net/category/ict/search-engines/