The next stage of the long-rumored Google health initiative is finally set to be launched in a few months’ time. Coming in Q2/Q3 2007, Google is poised to roll out something they will call “Google Scrapbook.” The Google Scrapbook will be a simplified form of a personal health record (PHR) that will allow individuals to input their own health and medical data.

The Scrapbook will link to relevant health content and will also eventually be able to automatically download personal health data from three sources:

1. Academic medical centers (like a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital)
2. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
3. Electronic medical records providers (e.g., if your medical record resides within an existing EMR provider, you could ask them to be imported into Google)

As with other Google services, the Google Scrapbook will allow individuals to organize and search their own personal health information in a manner that is secure, yet easy to use. Unlike Gmail, Google’s Web-based email service, the Google Scrapbook is likely not to have advertising integrated within it. It’s not clear how the service would enhance Google’s bottom line, other than to keep people coming back to Google time and time again to organize and keep track of their health information. Scrapbook, like all of Google’s services for consumers, will be free and there will likely be hefty data quotas (e.g., 2 GB, similar to current Gmail quotas).

Similar to Google’s Co-op effort, it is likely that Google with partner with certain health providers to refer people to those providers’ specific health programs. These tend to be business and revenue relationships, but at a higher level than the display of simple text ads (as in Gmail). Look for all the usual big names in healthcare to be a part of this effort.

The real question — will anyone trust Google with this information? To-date, consumers have signed on to Google e-mail efforts without too much concern about the contextual advertising that shows up around their emails. Will consumers have greater privacy concerns about their health data? I don’t think they will. Unless Google suffers from some sort of huge security breach, I think consumers will be happy to keep giving Google more and more information over time.

The second real question — without a direct tie-in to doctors, will any of this work or matter? Doctors no longer control the medical record, but they are still an integral part of the whole process. It may not need such a tie-in to be successful, but it’s an interesting question to ponder.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 10 Dec 2006
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.