This week’s blog will be the last for this school year. The article is not long, but it should lead you to think about the social and ethical issues involved. Google is now offering to store personal health records online. There are implications to this that involve security concerns and questions of accurate information. Go to the first link below and read the article. Then, go to the second link and view the tour of Google Health. Write a reflective comment that demonstrates you have read both Web pages and have addressed my questions.
Keeping personal health records on the Web has potential good and bad aspects. What do you think would be the greatest advantage to this system? What do you think would be the greatest disadvantage? What personal information would you be willing to put in your online personal health records and what would you want to withhold? How much control should your doctor have over your online records?
Google Health Article
Google Health Tour
20 comments:
The greatest advantage to this system is that it will be easy to access and easy to find personal health records. Also, since it is stored through the network system, it can be accessed anywhere in the world that has internet. However, there will several disadvantage to this system. For instance, hackers could get into the health records and change it. Well, I do not want to put personal information that will impact my social life but information about my height, weight, and general health information. Doctors should have most of the control on the personal health records so that they can use as a reference whenever he or she is injured.
Google’s new Google Health has many advantages, such as giving not only easy information to the doctors but also the individual himself on his health. Yet it also has a major disadvantage, privacy-or lack of it. Some people will be able to view another’s records, and it is not hard to hack into someone’s account and view their information. I would put any information about my health records, as I have no special illnesses or allergies. My own personal doctor should be able to see all this information. If there is anything I want to hide, I simply would not put it in the records.
In theory, it's perfect. You will have everything organized and ready, just in case an emergency pops up, the doctors will have all the records. I travel a lot as well, it'd be handy to have everything on me in case I get sick and tossed in to a hospital while I'm traveling. The problem with it though is the legalities. They make you sign off, pretty much all your rights when you join in to it. Thus, your information can be utilized by Google. Soon you will be getting advertisements based on the diseases you have. Missing a kidney? Click here for cheap alternatives.
There are many great advantages to keeping health records online. One of them is being able to make copies of them or being able to see them easily. There can also be many disadvantages to having personal health records kept on the internet. Someone could hack into a server and find out personal health information about a person. I would probably only be willing to put information about my allegies and diseases (which I do not have)online. I think that my doctor would have 32.5% control over my online records.
The greatest advantage in this system is that it will be easy to access health records. The greatest disadvantage of this is the lack of privacy it has. I would put almost everything in this site because i think it is a good idea. The only thing that I wouldn't put in it is something embarissing, for example, if i had AIDS. Your doctor should have control over everything on the site because your doctor is in chanrge of your health. You should never be embarrassed from your doctor.
Greatest advantage to such a system would be that it’s easily accessible by both you and your doctor. Even though it does have nice advantages, you still wouldn't it to fall in the wrong hands or for someone to actually mess up the details on the file. I would only post general information and anything relating to a sickness or illness, so that if a doctor is treating me, he knows what to treat and I would prefer to withhold any unnecessary information that the doctor has no use of. The doctors should really have full control over the records. The doctors should state any new findings about their patient. But I'd give my doctor full control of such a profile only if I trusted him enough and knew a bit about his career.
Google Health's advantages are that the information is specific to each individual and his or her problems. Disadvantages are of course the lack of privacy. There is no doctor-patient privacy, people will be able to read and view others problems. I would want to put information for others to view that is not self-harming or embarrassing to me such as a simple allergy or flu. I'd withhold anything that would embarrass me or ruin my social life such as a serious problem that has to do with a person's private area for example. Some things are meant to be kept personal and private. Doctors should have most of the control but not all of it. The doctors should be able to do whatever they want with the given record but the individual person should decide whether he wants something to be private or public.
What Google is doing is great idea, that way you can see if your health is improving. It will make doctors lives much easier, instead of going through a lot of documents and folders; they can just look it up on Google health. The disadvantage is that if someone wanted to attack you, he know exactly were to hit you. Lets say you had problems with your heart, which will probably be the attackers first target. I would probably put information needed by a doctor. I wouldn’t mind putting general stuff that no one needs if they had anything against me like maybe blood type.
Google Health is a very beneficial system. The greatest advantage to this system is the health information available for patients and doctors online. Especially in the case of an emergency, doctors can simply go online and access a patient’s medical history. The disadvantage to the system is obviously the lack of privacy. I personally don’t mind if my medical history was available to people online, but I don’t think many people feel the same way. I would put all of my medical information because I don’t have anything to hide, however, it would probably be embarrassing or uncomfortable for someone who has an STD for example or some bizarre condition to have their information posted for the world to see. I think doctors have the right to control 100% of your information as long as they don’t misuse it.
The greatest advantage of this system would be that it would be easy to access your personal health records, regardless of who you are or where you are. It would also help doctors do their job a lot more efficiently. However, the system also has great risks. Any professional hackers would easily get into the system in order to gain what they want. I would be willing to put any personally information as long as they won’t disturb my life. Doctors with proper degrees should have full controls over the system.
I think that the greatest advantage to this new system is that you can keep record of your medical health anywhere you go and live. I don’t really see any disadvantage to this system because it is a very good idea that is in my opinion flawless, but it may have some small down side to it, but everything does so it doesn’t matter. I think I would put everything on because Google is a very respectable company so I trust them completely. I think that the doctor should have limited control over the online records because some doctors cannot be trusted with this type of information on the records.
I think the greatest advantage to put you personally health record online would be so that if you were to misplace your records, or if it was an emergency and you didn't have time to get the record, it would already be online and your doctor could just get it there. The greatest disadvantage would be if someone hacked into the system or something like that happened. Then someone would have access to all of your personal files and information which would put you at high risk of identity theft. I guess the only thing I would really want to be on an online health record for me is my medical conditions and my treatments. I wouldn't want my address or my address on the file. My address could be in the files under prescribed pills or anything. I'm not exactly sure if I would want my doctor to have much control over any online health records of me. What if they happen to make a mistake and leave it open or press the wrong button; I wouldn't want to be put at risk of identity theft because of my doctors’ mistake. But all in all, I wouldn't want to have an online health record; I think the paper record is perfectly fine.
It would be an easier way to access the information and one wouldn’t have to carry all the documents around whenever when they need it. I would be will to put up all my health records since I don’t have anything to hide. But if I had a serious disease I don’t think I would want everyone to know about it and since the internet can be accessed by anyone I wouldn’t want people other than my doctors to know my personal health records. My doctor should only be able to access my records under my supervision.
The greatest advantage to the system I think is that it is a very efficient way to receive advice, information and feedback in terms of immediate health care. For example if you have a question about a medication or some symptom, then instead of waiting on hold to talk to your doctor, you can simply check it out on this application. The greatest disadvantage would be the assurance that all the information is authentic and real, because the Internet and many sites on it are known to be sketchy in their information. Nothing is 100% reliable when it comes to the Internet, and that wouldn’t be such a big issue with anything else, but the problem is that with health care it has to be reliable in every way. For me I would not be willing to put any information onto the computer, because I don’t have any serious health problems anyway, and if I did I would not want to deal with them through Google. I think your personal doctor should discuss with you how much control they think they should have, but in the end you make a decision based on the discussion and what you think is best for the safety and privacy of your health. By Nadine
I see no problem with making one's own medical records available to oneself and one's doctor. Provided that privacy is considered by Google, and that no one can access your information with out your permission, I see no problem. Health records contain extremely vital information, and having this service making them more accessible from anywhere could save lives.
Being able to go online and find health records is amazing for doctors and patients. The disadvantage is that you have to sign off basically your rights to be able to join. Not much I like to keep my personal stuff private. None it should go through the patient.
Being able to go online and find health records is amazing for doctors and patients. The disadvantage is that you have to sign off basically your rights to be able to join. Not much I like to keep my personal stuff private. None it should go through the patient.
I think this new feature that Google has added has many advantages. First, it helps store health records in an easy to access place. I wont be scared of losing where I kept my records because they will always be in that same place. Another great advantage is that you can send the information to a doctor quickly. I believe that although this system has many advantages, I think it has its share of disadvantages too. First, it will be an unreliable place for storing private information. There are a lot of people that can hack computers and quickly hack into your account. Health records are private, and so they should be kept in a reliable place that can’t be accessed by online predators. Also, carrying the information wouldn’t be difficult. It would be very easy for people to move these financial records. In my opinion, I think they should be tested out in a smaller scale before making it available to the general public.
The greatest advantage of Google Health is the enabling ability that it provides its users with. The status quo in countries around the world usually covet the idea of employment in medical fields because so few people possess the knowledge, money, and time to study such extensive subjects as Orthopedics or Emergency services. If something is wrong we would usually say: "Go see a doctor." Well, there are thousands of others like you who need to "go see a doctor", and getting to a hospital could be a difficulty for you, so the probability that you'll be able to see the doctor any time soon is very low. Many people will corroborate this statement, but where Google Health comes in is, it enables Mr. Average Joe, his wife, even his eighty-year-old father to receive an accurate diagnosis of their problem, without seeking the immediate attention of a medical specialist, through a listing of symptoms they may be experiencing. So, Mr. Joe there, who probably studied agriculture in college, even his son who's barely out of Junior High, could both become their own doctors, simply with the use of Google Health. Now, this is not to suggest that Google Health gives its users the magic abilities to work wonders with a bone saw, but it suggests that in case of an emergency, a broken ankle or a spasm attack, that the people around you can aid you by determining what the problem is and how to control it until you go to a hospital, or to avoid a disease early on before it becomes fatal or malicious. Quite recently, there was a discussion in my school about whether teachers should have medical training, so as to treat students in the absence of the school nurse. The answer should be yes, and a valuable tool for these trainees is Google Health. For a lack of better terms, Google Health is like a condom. It is there for an individuals protection, and can basically get the job done except in special cases where special attention is required, where visitations to a doctor are a necessity. To become more useful to the medical communities and their patients however, Google Health is forced to place itself in a sensitive situation where it has to not only contain, but preserve the medical records of the millions of subscribers belonging to their association. Now, MSN's Hotmail boasted that their accounts were completely safe, and that people's privacy would not be misused. That was, until viruses began to rage rampant in peoples e-mail accounts by use of fake account that people had set up in Hotmail, which forced the MSN staff to send chain letters requiring their users to attach their e-mails to signify that their account is real, or be terminated by the end of the month. Another such case is noticeable in Facebook, which quite recently has become infamous for spam messages forcefully sent through Facebook users accoutns, appearing on their contact's walls claiming that they used penis enlarging pills and that they should use them too. It is such little mistakes made by large companies that lead people to distrust, making Google Health's posting of peoples medical records a fearful prospect, and the greatest disadvantage for users. Take, for example, a person hacked into your medical records and wrote that you are in medical need for marijuana or morphine. All they'd have to do afterwards is make a fake identification card with your name and likeness. They get the drugs, and when this glitch is discovered, you go to jail. Now Google Health claimed that the sites are completely safe due to no postings of advertisements, but questions are still raised about the security making this a necessary, but dangerous tool. So, distrusting as humans naturally are of each other, I would not place much information on my medical records out of fear of illegal alteration, but I would at least place my allergies or my current symptoms, but as for issues such as surgeries or heart conditions, I would be afraid to place such sensitive information on Google Health. I would prefer those sensitive matters to be on paper in tightly held, secure places, even though the lack of alacrity in retrieving those files could put me in a dangerous position in emergency situations. As for the control my doctor has over my medical records, I believe that he should always, regardless of their patients condition, take their patients legal permission to take any action having to do with their medical records.
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