Google has launched its Google Health beta test site. You can sign on to keep all of your medical records on this site. Google will work with the providers (e.g., Walgreens, Medco, Hospitals, etc.) to compile your medical information. You can choose to release this information to others and you can also add information on your own too. You can add information about your medical condition, immunizations, medications, allergies, etc. Currently, the level of permissions on the data is a the global level. That is, all or nothing type of release is the only one available.
What is interesting in this beta site is the notion that you can control the access and release of your private medical data, which is part of your Digital Persona. Google acts as an agent for you and ensures that the trust and security that you desire are offered by Google. In effect, Google works like a Trust Bank (see our paper). This is an idea that I proposed in our NSF proposal. Unfortunately, the reviewers felt that the idea would be too difficult to implement and that there would be lot of resistance from "luddites" - a term the reviewers used.
I am curious to see how Google pulls this off and also to see if NSF will revisit how they appoint reviewers to panels!
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