I can't speak to PowerMeter but on Google Health they have no one to blame but themselves. I desperately wanted to employ it here (I work for an agency that takes in abused children and had envisioned putting the kids records into Google Health so they would start out being able to carry their records wherever they go).
But after just an hour of research I'd already identified over 20 serious issues that could open us up to major liability claims.
To give just one example. This is from Google's own Google health page...
"Unlike a doctor or health plan, Google Health is not regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal law that establishes data confidentiality standards for patient health information. This is because Google does not store data on behalf of health care providers. Instead, our primary relationship is with the user."
Well...ok...but then how are health care providers supposed to put information in for their clients? The whole point of this is for the patient to carry around accurate information. But if the Doctor has to trust the patient will put the information in themselves there's no way to guarantee all the information will be put in correctly. Meaning the records could be more harm than good. Imagine a scenario where the patient forgets to put in allergy information leading a future physician to assume they have no allergies.
(Yes you could provide patients with a zip file to just upload but there's still no guarantee the user won't unzip it and upload it manually or any of a million other stupid things that users sometimes do)
Had Google actually engaged the industry rather than throwing something at them Google Health could have literally changed the world. Which is a far cry from the quick death it has found itself suffering.
But after just an hour of research I'd already identified over 20 serious issues that could open us up to major liability claims.
To give just one example. This is from Google's own Google health page...
"Unlike a doctor or health plan, Google Health is not regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal law that establishes data confidentiality standards for patient health information. This is because Google does not store data on behalf of health care providers. Instead, our primary relationship is with the user."
Well...ok...but then how are health care providers supposed to put information in for their clients? The whole point of this is for the patient to carry around accurate information. But if the Doctor has to trust the patient will put the information in themselves there's no way to guarantee all the information will be put in correctly. Meaning the records could be more harm than good. Imagine a scenario where the patient forgets to put in allergy information leading a future physician to assume they have no allergies.
(Yes you could provide patients with a zip file to just upload but there's still no guarantee the user won't unzip it and upload it manually or any of a million other stupid things that users sometimes do)
Had Google actually engaged the industry rather than throwing something at them Google Health could have literally changed the world. Which is a far cry from the quick death it has found itself suffering.