ONLINE HEALTH MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES

Google Health

There are a number of online tools available to help you keep track of your health records. Google offers a great one in its arsenal of online applications. It is called Google Health and offers a number of applications for users interested in keeping online records of their health.

A left-hand talk bar is the place to begin entering your information and customizing this tool to your needs. There are a number of items to input, such as: gender, ethnicity, blood type, age, etc. An extensive list of medical conditions and symptoms follows this. You can search through an alphabetical list or begin typing a condition and Google Health will make suggestions as you go. The same goes for medications, allergies, medical procedures, test results, and immunizations.

Various health organizations can be linked to the profile created here. These include, hospitals, pharmacies, and medical associations. By linking, medical records can be imported. For example, you can link with your local pharmacy to get all prescription information imported to the Google Health profile.

There is also an application to help find health services on the Internet. The Cleveland Clinic offers a “My Consult” service that can be linked to the profile. This service comes at a premium. However there are options for more budget-conscious users as well. Destination Rx offers options on “lower-cost alternative medication options” according to Google Health.

Searches for medical professionals can be done from this site as well. This works similar to the ubiquitous Google search engine. Of course, safety and security of your personal information is tantamount. Google treats user information here the same as with any other of the services it provides which collect information. It takes care to ensure the safety and integrity of personal information.

Having medical information online has a number of benefits. Medical tourists may find this very useful as well. International health care providers cannot freely access the medical records of Americans thanks to legislation such as HIPAA. A medical tourist can use Google Health to get access to all of their medical records while abroad.

Google has successfully integrated yet another tool to its Internet spanning array of applications. Google Health is highly intuitive and helpful to anyone interested in managing health records online. Google utilizes not only its own resources, Google maps and the popular search engine, but has created partnerships with many other health care providers and information services.