March 16, 2007
Google Partners to Offer Free EMR
Google plans on partnering with Practice Fusion, a San Francisco company, to offer a free Web-based electronic health record system to physicians and medical groups.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "electronic medical records systems generally cost doctors upward of $20,000 to install. But Practice Fusion offers the service at a price that's hard to beat -- free."
In addition to a medical records system, Practice Fusion offers practice-management tools, such as billing systems. It says that by partnering with Google's AdSense network, the company can cover the cost of its services. Practice Fusion's deal with Google is what makes a free medical records system possible. Google's AdSense program will generate ads that will be displayed as the records system is used.
When a doctor using the service calls up a patient's health record, AdSense will recognize certain keywords -- such as "diabetes" -- and ads related to that condition will appear on the page. Advertising will be discreet -- no pop-ups -- and keywords are limited to a patient's condition, diagnosis or treatment. Practice Fusion says it complies with all federal privacy laws and will protect patient data.
Doctors will have the option of paying a $250 monthly fee to use the system without advertisements.
Posted by rsk at March 16, 2007 09:49 PM