AT&T Inc. is partnering with Tennessee to provide a statewide system to electronically exchange patient medical information. The system is designed to securely transmit detailed patient information between medical professionals, and will allow doctors to access medical histories, prescribe medicines over the Internet and transfer images.
Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service. The pilot project will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service. Each health profile will be protected by a password that's also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.
Entrepreneur buys up sites for individual cities, creating YourCity.MD, a network of about 300 city-specific healthcare Web sites. The creator is willing to wager that consumers looking for a new doctor, a flu shot or a referral for shoulder surgery will flock to the sites, and anticipates that 200,000 doctors who will be using the site by the end of the year.
The Supreme Court made it harder for consumers to sue manufacturers of federally approved medical devices. In an 8-1 decision, the court ruled against the estate of a patient who suffered serious injuries when a catheter burst during a medical procedure. The case has significant implications for the $75 billion-a-year healthcare technology industry, whose products range from heart valves to toothbrushes. In a recent three-month span, federal regulators responded to over 100 safety problems regarding medical devices.
Two small rural hospitals in Southern Illinois, Washington County Hospital in Nashville and Salem Township Hospital in Salem, are creating a community-wide medical information exchange that will allow physicians, hospitals and other medical providers to electronically share patient information. The partnership establishes a network of health communication that many larger, more urban areas, including St. Louis, have failed to do.
The World Privacy Forum is warning consumers about the potential pitfalls of using newly popular services that consolidate personal health records. Some of the records are kept by companies that are not subject to current federal regulations on privacy and security, according to the Forum.