ANALYSIS: Google Health organizes a patient's diverse medical data into a coherent on-line personal health record (PHR).
The visceral reaction of many to the privacy concerns is revealing: most people think they need to keep medical data secret because they're covering something up -- with employers, insurers, loved ones, maybe even themselves.
Here's the crown jewel of HIPAA violations: Google Health 2018: Worst Case Scenarios:
STOLEN DATA
Congressman Smith gets careless with his Google Health password -- or maybe a hacker gets at his record. His enemies post his data to the web where his colleagues, his girlfriend, his mom, his children and his constituents learn of his history of gonorrhea, depression, ED and shingles. Smith resigns.
WELLNESS POLICE
As part of her company's corporate wellness initiative, Smoker Sue is pressured to link her fitness data to the company's medical network. She places at the bottom of the wellness rankings which are used -- unofficially -- in performance reviews and project assignments. To the detriment of her career, she ignores friendly robotic reminders to stop smoking, eat better and work out more.
PERSONAL GENOMICS
The O'Halloran Family's genomic profile becomes the source of conflict when it turns out that several of the teenaged kids seem to come from different genetic backgrounds. Mom and dad have to explain which one is adopted, which is an IVF child from a donor egg, and which were from earlier marriages. In addition, the blood relations get told that they may be at higher than average risk for colon cancer. The family trip to Ireland is canceled.
The rest of the article is here: http://www.in3.org/articles/gh2018worst.htm
But some say that there's also something positive to be achieved!
DIET MONITORING
Cafe Kara links her Starbuck's card to her Google profile to keep track of her daily caffeine, milk and sugar intake. Her on-line grocery store updates nutrition data from her weekly grocery order, and American Express logs the calories, fat and protein counts for her restaurant purchases -- plus the alcohol totals from her bar tabs.
FITNESS MONITORING
Bicycle Bob's wristmounted fitness computer reports his heart rate and cycling cadence to his gym's wellness network which maintains his customized fitness profile and updates it daily to his Google Health file. Bob can correlate his workouts to his baseline -- resting heart rate, calories burned, training intensity -- and his doctor can watch if he's overtraining. He logs in from his mobile phone to see if he can afford the extra calories from the chocolate cake at dinner, and he links his fitness stats to his Facebook page to show off to members of his runners group.
PERSONAL GENOMICS
Curious Jean links her commercial DNA analysis to her Google account. The DNA service identifies risk factors in her Google profile. Her doctor uses the genetic data to derive the appropriate personal dose of her arthritis medication. When researchers identify a new genetic marker for a disease, she gets an email update if it's applicable.
The rest of the positives is here: http://www.in3.org/articles/gh2018best.htm
*********************************
Frankly, if you ask me; it's my data, my life, my disclosure, my problem. If the public demand for disclosure is big enough, then legislation needs to pass a law for disclosure of medical information, remove all laws concerning bias, harassment and preference...then, maybe this is considerable.
Other than that, this is borderline outrageous.
M.
The visceral reaction of many to the privacy concerns is revealing: most people think they need to keep medical data secret because they're covering something up -- with employers, insurers, loved ones, maybe even themselves.
Here's the crown jewel of HIPAA violations: Google Health 2018: Worst Case Scenarios:
STOLEN DATA
Congressman Smith gets careless with his Google Health password -- or maybe a hacker gets at his record. His enemies post his data to the web where his colleagues, his girlfriend, his mom, his children and his constituents learn of his history of gonorrhea, depression, ED and shingles. Smith resigns.
WELLNESS POLICE
As part of her company's corporate wellness initiative, Smoker Sue is pressured to link her fitness data to the company's medical network. She places at the bottom of the wellness rankings which are used -- unofficially -- in performance reviews and project assignments. To the detriment of her career, she ignores friendly robotic reminders to stop smoking, eat better and work out more.
PERSONAL GENOMICS
The O'Halloran Family's genomic profile becomes the source of conflict when it turns out that several of the teenaged kids seem to come from different genetic backgrounds. Mom and dad have to explain which one is adopted, which is an IVF child from a donor egg, and which were from earlier marriages. In addition, the blood relations get told that they may be at higher than average risk for colon cancer. The family trip to Ireland is canceled.
The rest of the article is here: http://www.in3.org/articles/gh2018worst.htm
But some say that there's also something positive to be achieved!
DIET MONITORING
Cafe Kara links her Starbuck's card to her Google profile to keep track of her daily caffeine, milk and sugar intake. Her on-line grocery store updates nutrition data from her weekly grocery order, and American Express logs the calories, fat and protein counts for her restaurant purchases -- plus the alcohol totals from her bar tabs.
FITNESS MONITORING
Bicycle Bob's wristmounted fitness computer reports his heart rate and cycling cadence to his gym's wellness network which maintains his customized fitness profile and updates it daily to his Google Health file. Bob can correlate his workouts to his baseline -- resting heart rate, calories burned, training intensity -- and his doctor can watch if he's overtraining. He logs in from his mobile phone to see if he can afford the extra calories from the chocolate cake at dinner, and he links his fitness stats to his Facebook page to show off to members of his runners group.
PERSONAL GENOMICS
Curious Jean links her commercial DNA analysis to her Google account. The DNA service identifies risk factors in her Google profile. Her doctor uses the genetic data to derive the appropriate personal dose of her arthritis medication. When researchers identify a new genetic marker for a disease, she gets an email update if it's applicable.
The rest of the positives is here: http://www.in3.org/articles/gh2018best.htm
*********************************
Frankly, if you ask me; it's my data, my life, my disclosure, my problem. If the public demand for disclosure is big enough, then legislation needs to pass a law for disclosure of medical information, remove all laws concerning bias, harassment and preference...then, maybe this is considerable.
Other than that, this is borderline outrageous.
M.
