After many steamy rumors, Google Health has finally decided to store our medical records in a secure way that is more accessible, easier to understand, and useful than traditional paper records.
Since the last announcement, we actually haven’t heard too much about the service, which isn’t particularly surprising given the sensitive nature of the information involved. Recently Google has announced that it has launched a significant new feature, giving users the ability to share their medical records with designated family or close friends.
The general idea behind the feature is that in many times specially during emergencies close-family members may not know the details of your medical history, like medical allergies. Such information can be lifesaving, but sharing extremely personal medical information is not something that should be taken lightly. Google is taking lengthy measures to ensure the security of the data, associating invite links to specific Email addresses and allowing users to track who has viewed their records. All shared records are also read-only.
For those users who are less tech-savvy, Google is also launching a new feature that makes it easy to print out wallet-sized snapshots of your medical profile, which you can distribute to close family or perhaps just keep in your own wallet. The site is also launching a new graphing feature, allowing users to visualize the progress of health-related metrics like their blood pressure or cholesterol.
