Google Health is dead

June 24, 2011 -- From an announcement on Google's official blog, we learn of the end of a wonderful experiment.

Google Health was a great idea -- empowering patients with control over their own data -- that we applauded.

Alas, the business model was weak; not enough users (and no insurance companies) saw enough value to get on board. Its primary virtue was the real life implementation of a Continuity of Care Record -- something that we sorely need. The value was there but it was subtle.

In a fascinating analysis, Missy Krasner observes that the challenge (that proved insurmountable) was the dominance by "tethered" health care records, those operated by health care providers (hospitals, doctors' offices, and tertiary and ancillary providers such as outpatient services and labs). The drawbacks of these data silos is that data is not shared among providers, hindering patient mobility. Providers don't want to lose business by enabling patients to go elsewhere.

Nonetheless, PHRs (personal health records) such as Google's must ultimately prevail. KevinMD agrees with me: Google gave up on electronic personal health records, but we shouldn't. This will happen only with guidance from regulators. Obama's health care reform does this... alas, too late for Google.

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