Online health records; all for the good?

Online personal health records: You might just have noticed that there is much talk around about Google and Microsoft’s online personal health record offerings. It has been assumed, particularly by those of us in the industry, that demand will be huge and that it will be a major boon for the new legions of ‘informed’ patients. A few recent posts have however asked a) are these Google and MS products really good for the consumer, and b) does said consumer actually really give a monkey’s? Are these products fulfilling a previously unmet need, or are they made, like many of the less successful web2.0 projects, with the “build it and they will come” model?

The Krafty Librarian gives us an anecdotal story of how her partner got into a right anxious muddle by asking Dr Google what his test results meant (he had viewed them online, rather than had them given, and explained to him, by a health professional), while the Health Care Blog asks “What are the circumstances for using a PHR and do the benefits outweigh the perceived risks?”, and fails to come up with a satisfactory answer…