Google Health Goes to Cleveland

Google Health is beginning a very limited pilot project with the Cleveland Clinic. The project will allow users to create a Personal Health Record from medical records uploaded by the Cleveland Clinic at the user's request.

In theory, this would mean you'd have a portfolio of your own information, which you could virtually carry with you to any medical professional you visited or access for your own information. You'd never have to fill out those mile-long health histories on the first visit to a doctor.

ZDNET Healthcare has an excellent explanation of this process, which has to carefully step around HIPAA laws regulating the privacy of health information. The project leads to other privacy concerns, one of which seems to be whether or not users are smart enough to wisely handle their own information.