Gawker: valleywag, google health

Google Health may prove dangerous to your privacy

Jackson West — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:20:00 EDT

A group of Googlers, including ubiquitous trend-upsetter SVP Marissa Mayer, did their song and dance for the press at a "factory tour" on the Google campus in Mountain View today. The big news? The official launch of Google Health, which offers features like a doctor finder and the ability to upload and track your medical records. Already, the privacy concerns are mounting.

While promising to protect the data of individuals, the company did say it will deliver reports on data in the aggregate — a prospect an epidemiologist might relish. According to the terms of the privacy policy, there's nothing to stop the company from divulging your medical history to authorities in the case of, say, a National Security Letter or any old subpoena from the courts. Not to mention employers snooping on you while you browse Google Health at work.

Eric Schmidt impersonates Mike Long at healthcare conference

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:40:31 EST

Google's onto its new thing, Google Health, and CEO Eric Schmidt is off on the road to promote the product. Stiffly. Too bad he's above taking lessons from the recent past. Back in the 1990s, Silicon Graphics and Netscape founder Jim Clark planned to put his third company, Healtheon, at the center of the health care industry. Didn't happen. But if investors ever believed it would, it's because Healtheon CEO Mike Long sold them during talks across the globe. In the book The New New Thing, author Michael Lewis called it Long's "road show." If anything will doom Google Health, it's that Schmidt lacks Long's flare for salesmanship. Here's a clip from his stop at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Annual Conference in Orlando.

Genetics research + online health profiles = burgers

Jordan Golson — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:40:00 EST

With the launch of Google's health data service, we're going to set aside our skepticism for a moment and think about what this could potentially mean for society. Nah, screw society — for me personally. Google cofounder Sergey Brin invested in his wife's genetics research startup. 23andMe takes cheek swabs from customers and spits out their genetic history. Board member Esther Dyson writes:

a second goal of 23andMe [is] to collect a large database of genetic information and then come back to you over time with invitations to provide specific health data and participate in research.

Combining these data sets — health histories and extensive genetics information — could lead to significant breakthroughs in predicting future health issues. I think this means I can eat all the Yahoo burgers I want without worrying!

Google Health trials finally launching

Jordan Golson — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:20:20 EST

If you were worried about your privacy when Google read your Gmail to show relevant ads, you're really going to hate Google Health. The pilot program for Google Health will store the health records of 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic, a not-for-profit medical center. Each profile will include information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories and will be accessed with a Google Account — the same login used for all of Google's services, including Gmail. There's no word on when the project will open to a wider audience, but Marissa Mayer — who replaced previous Google Health head Adam Bosworth — says the project will launch in 2008.

Storing health records online is nothing new. Most hospitals computerized their records long ago. The new bit is allowing patients access to their data from anywhere. Interestingly, third-party services like Google Health aren't currently covered by HIPAA, the federal health privacy law that establishes strict protocols for how health data can be shared. For example, the current law requires doctors and hospitals to notify patients when subpoenaed for a medical record. Once medical records are transferred to a service like Google Health — a storage service, not a medical provider — it could be easier for outside parties to obtain medical records.

In other words, Congress is sure to get involved. But wait a moment: What's the fuss all about? Who really needs this service? The Cleveland Clinic is an ideal testbed because many of its patients are retirees who migrate to Arizona and Florida for part of the year, away from their regular doctors who hold their health records. Aside from that group, how many people need portable health records in the first place? Google, Microsoft, and others are all pursuing this market avidly, but I don't see anyone stopping to ask how healthy a business it is.

What the Google Health login looks like ... OMFG!

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:40:12 EST

We know. You've hardly able to keep your pants on. Introducing ... the Google Health login page!

So the login page might finally be live, but sorry fans, that's as far as you'll get. You still can't access Google Health. Further progress will likely to take at least a few more weeks of daily 90-minute meetings for Marissa Mayer. Even then, don't expect much.

Tech and health care have a twisted history, we've noted before. We expect change, if it ever comes, to start in hospitals or Congress, not the technoptimistic halls of the Googleplex. Feeling ill? Don't hold your breath.

Google Health claims its first victim

Megan McCarthy — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:14:14 EDT

Just as we predicted, the Google Health project has killed off one top exec. And in record time, too! Head of the project Adam Bosworth has decided to move on from the company once he gets back from vacation. Now in charge? One Marissa Mayer, long the object of Valleywag's fascination. While the powers that be will try to spin this as a promotion, we think that Marissa might want to dust off the old resume. Becoming the head of health is the tech equivalent of being named the drummer for Spinal Tap. After the jump, the email explaining the management change sent to all Google Health beta testers.

Dear Trusted Testers:

Some of you may have recently seen the news about Adam Bosworth. Adam has decided to pursue other opportunities and is currently on vacation. While we are sad to see Adam go as he is a great talent and was instrumental in starting Google Health, we will be moving forward with our product plans and are 100% committed to health. Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products and User Experience and Adam's former manager at Google is leading the health team. Marissa had been keeping track of our product progress through weekly meetings with Adam and myself and other key Product Managers.

For those of you who may not know Marissa - she is best known for being the first female engineer at Google and helped launch Web Search. She currently owns the User Interface design for all search related products and manages over over a 100 Product Managers at Google who in turn influence thousands of engineers. She is known throughout the tech industry for her expertise in user interface design and user experience and has also been widely quoted and featured in prominent publications such as Newsweek ("10 Tech Leaders of the Future"), Red Herring ("15 Women to Watch"), Business 2.0 ("Silicon Valley Dream Team"), BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Fast Company. Her bio is included below to help you get familiar with her.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/execs.html#marissa

We also have recently added staff to the health team and we want to introduce you to them as you will be working with them on testing. Jerry Lin, M.B.A. recently joined Google as a Product Manager and will be managing coding and UI. Maneesh Arora, a seasoned Product Manager at Google, has come over to the health team and will be working on partner support and scaling our Third Party partner services. Roni Zeiger, M.D. will continue to work on the Health Guide and I will continue to be involved with partner integration. As many of you know, we launched our product internally for testing to a subset of Google employees on August 16, 2007. We are continuing to get feedback from employees and will be expanding the number of employees who can test in the next few weeks.

If you have any further questions about our staffing, feel free to contact my colleague Missy Krasner at missy@google.com

Thank you again for your ongoing support.

Eric Sachs
Product Manager
Google

A glimpse inside Google Health

Mary Jane Irwin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:24:53 EDT

Google Blogoscoped has posted tipster-supplied screenshots of a prototype of Google's upcoming health-information service. Presumably, these are screens from the demo reportedly being shopped around to health professionals and other advisors. While the amount of data Google Health plans to store is impressive, and potentially helpful, it's terrifying to contemplate the prospect of one company controlling all of your personal data — from communications and business documents to medical records. If we're lucky, Googler Adam Bosworth's make-work project will never get off the ground.