Google Health expands deal with CVS
April 06, 2009 (Cnet)
The notion of e-health records is becoming more and more a reality. In April 2009, it was recently announced that customers of CVS' pharmacy will be able to import their prescription records into a Google Health account as a result of an expanded deal between the two companies. The original deal was limited to workers whose company used CVS Caremark, but now the deal has been expanded to customers of CVS' network of retail pharmacies.
"We now offer all of our consumers the ability to download their prescription and medication history into their Google Health Personal Health Record, whether they are CVS/pharmacy customers, CVS Caremark plan participants or visitors to our MinuteClinic locations," said CVS Caremark Executive Vice President Helena Foulkes in a statement. "By enabling patients to download their prescription information directly into their personal health record, we are helping to close the gap in today's fragmented health care system and provide a full view of a patient's health."
With the latest deal, Google said it now believes more than 100 million Americans will have the option of viewing their drug history within Google Health.
Microsoft, which is also trying to sign consumers up for its HealthVault service, announced a deal with New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday which will allow patients of that hospital system to export their records to a HealthVault account.
As the use of e-health records becomes increasingly more commonplace in society, there is an increased need to focus on security and accuracy of those records. As is the case with any database or information system, accuracy and security are issues. In the case of personal digitized medical records, these elements become an extremely critical matter. YOUnite's patented technology offers a unique solution to ongoing and costly problem of data security and accuracy through the notion of "distributed sharing of personal identity attributes". By applying YOUnite's patented technology to the concept of digitized medical records, for example, the patient would be able to maintain their own medical records on their own personal devices and then selectively share that information with those of their choosing. Other third party companies would not be required to store the patient's data on the third party networks; therefore dramatically reducing the possibility of highly sensitive medical records becoming compromised, inaccurate or otherwise experiencing malicious attacks as a result of data security breaches.
YOUnite's patented technology increases the security and accuracy in an efficient and cost effective manner, thereby directly addressing the potential serious issues of data security that are being discussed regarding the electronic health record initiatives.
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