Google and Health


Since Adam Bosworth ran around with a business card that said "health" at PC Forum, I’ve been wondering what he’s been up to at Google.

Today, finally a somewhat clarifying post: Google will do something about healthcare, but it’s not clear yet what exactly.

My gut reaction is two-fold:

  • Good: I trust Google a lot more to get out a product that actually works than healthcare software companies whose leading-edge software products are still based on MUMPS. And even if nothing else ever happens, it will scare up the establishment some, which is a good thing, too.
  • Cautious: so far, there are many questions about Google’s commitment to fully safeguarding the privacy of information stored with them, *particularly* from Google itself. So far, they haven’t needed that so much, but this is going to be extremely critical.