Google Health Could Be A Lifesaver For Boomers

Google finally took the covers off of their Google Health service today, and I wanted to give you a peak at what you’ll find. There are currently a couple other websites that serve as personal health records (PHR’s), most notably Microsoft’s Health Vault.

I know that lots of boomers may be leery of having their personal health history and prescription drug information available online, but this service might be worth a look. It could even save your life. For example if you are traveling abroad, or even just out of state and fall ill, you could easily provide the hospital doctors and nurses with the health and prescription information they need, assuming you were awake and alert or had a family member by your side who could gain access to your Google Health account.

For some in great health this may not seem like a big deal. But if you take 5, 6, 7 or more prescriptions a day and sometimes you just can’t remember the name of the one that starts with an “A”, you can see where a service such as this might be helpful. The downside is that only a few health care providers (Cleveland Clinic, QuestDiagnostics (lab), Walgreen’s (pharmacy) among a few others) have the ability to send your data to Google Health, but look for the number to quickly expand as the program rolls out. If your health care provider/pharmacy do not currently participate you’ll have to import your data manually (by hand).

Take the Google Health tour to learn about all the features available.