The Google Health Experiment is Shutting Down

For the last four years or so I’ve been watching in the background as Google Health came out, followed shortly thereafter by Microsoft’s Healtvault and others.  PHR (personal health records) – take e-healthcare to the individual patient.  This was before the ARRA and the new EHR and meaningful use initiatives, before many people even knew what an EHR was, let alone a PHR.  Like many things Google had found a niche and was grabbing it by the horns to make it play nice for the average Joe.  Now it is over… they recently announced that the service will be completely shuttered on January 1, 2012.  At that point you will no longer be able to add info, search or view information etc.  They are giving you until the same time the following year to download or port your information into a new place.  Other PHR solutions like Microsoft’s HealthVault are already promoting the ease with which you can move your Google Health PHP information into their systems. 



Google Health wasn't just a place to store your personal health information.  It was a go to source for people regarding all things medical from conditions to finding an appropriate doctor, or getting diet and exercise help.  The idea was that people could put their information in there, share it with doctors and institutions and be more in touch with both their health information and their providers.  With all of the changes in healthcare over the last two years alone, an arrangement like Google Health would seem to be a no brainer.  Finally people would know about it and it would be increasingly vital, valuable, and useful, but now it’s gone.

The whys are being speculated on even as we speak everything from there was not enough uniform patient history in there to make it relevant for download or useful as for patient portal access for doctors and offices, to lack of interest from companies developing and creating EHR software and all of the connections to it, to not being able to get current health insurance information in there for your patients.

So- A no brainer, ahead of its time, poised on at the top of the mountain with fresh powder splayed before it, why pull out now?  My best guess is that although the information may be timely and relevant to individuals, providers, and offices now, for Google it is simply “so yesterday”.  They are growing and evolving in to what they will be in five or ten more years and Google Health was irrelevant to them and their growth- dead weight so to speak.  Their new move with Motorola shows the direction they are taking and the places they are working towards.  Their path will still continue to intersect with healthcare – how can they not, they intersect with darn near everything—but if you have PHR data in Google Health, it’s days have a specific number now and you will have to consider your PHR future without Google.