UK National Google Health Service
p2pnet news view Politics | Advertising:-Terrific news for Britons!
If the Conservatives oust the current UK Labour government, Microsot or Gargle may soon be looking after your health records!
Just like they do in America.
Conservative leader David Cameron, “wants people to use services like Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault as an alternative to the, “£12bn national patient record database ordered by the government,” says The Guardian.
But the Liberal Democrats have complained that the plan could give Google undue commercial advantage.
No mention of privacy or whether or not Google, the massive American online advertising company, should be trusted with anything more dangerous than recipes.
And, “when they’re in control of their own health records, they’re more interested in their health, so they might start living more healthily, saving the NHS money. But, best of all in this age of austerity, a web-based version of the government’s bureaucratic scheme services – like Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault – costs virtually nothing to run,” the story has Cameron gushing.
BUT —- “The Tories are still working out how this proposal could be implemented. One problem is that the Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault systems would need to be adapted for them to work in Britain. Under the plan, it is thought that patients would be given the option of storing their records with private companies but they would not have to do so. Patients would also be given a choice of private provider, meaning that no one company would get a monopoly.
Adds The Guardian, “Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem health spokesman, told the Times: ‘It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth that there are repeated references to Google, given the closeness of Team Cameron to that organisation, and it leaves concerns about commercial advantage’.”
But what’s the problem? After all, in the US, the new Obama administration has been thoroughly Googled.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
The Guardian – Cameron: Patients should store health records with Google or Microsoft, July 6, 2009
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July 6th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I find this terrifying. In the US, the patient is the last person to see their own medical record as it is, but entrusting that data to yet another third party (and Google at that!) seems like a disaster waiting to happen.