“As the country edges toward full computerization of medical records, most of the objections have focused on potential breaches of privacy. Beth Israel Deaconess has stumbled on a different problem in its tie-in with Google Health: accuracy.
Google, Microsoft, and other companies offer consumers a voluntary, cost-free means of creating a personal health record accessible over the Internet and usable, with the patient’s OK, by healthcare providers. But Beth Israel discovered that using insurance claims data can sometimes provide false information because of misinterpretations of insurance codes. The hospital has sensibly decided to stop using such data. For its part, Google, which says it will “listen and improve Google Health based on what users teach us,” should stop accepting insurance claims data from its partner hospitals.”
Article
Editorial, Boston Globe, 24 April 2009
