IBM-Google deal good, lazy media bad
Take my hypertension (please). A device compatible with Continua's open source standards can now check my blood pressure regularly, upload that to Google Health, and let me detect changes in my daily pattern before it kills me. Thanks to IBM.
I can share these changes with a doctor, who may advise me to change my prescription, come in for a stress test, head for the emergency room or just chill.
Knowing this can save my life. Had my old j-school teacher known about his blood pressure changes he might still be with us. Three cheers to all involved for making this link possible.
And no cheers to the media for how they reported on it. Google Now Knows Your Heart Rate? Please. Letting Google Take Your Pulse? Spare me.
If you can trust Google to save your e-mails (and you can) then you can trust the technology behind this system. It's not Google taking your pulse anyway, it's a device which follows the Continua standards. It's IBM's software that is doing the heavy lifting -- Google is just acting as a repository for your data.
I understand that many people don't understand Personal Health Records (PHRs) like Google Health, so let me repeat the true facts. Slowly, so even Forbes understands.
The data in your PHR belongs to you, not the company storing it. It's the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) built by your doctor and/or hospital that are subject to HIPAA privacy regulations.
Keeping your PHR private is your job. It is under your control, and no one else's. To assume, in a headline or anywhere else, that PHR data belongs to the company storing it is pure ignorance. To spread that nonsense is counterproductive to everyone's health and efforts to gain more control over their health data.
I'm really proud C|Net got the headline right. I think it's important to note here that Microsoft can easily take advantage of this advance in its HealthVault site, merely by supporting the IBM code through Continua.
As to the reporters knocking out easy lies, unemployment rates aren't high enough yet.