My test run of Google Health

So last time I wrote a little about Microsoft's Health Vault. This time I thought it would be fair to give Google Health a test run, which is also in beta. A lot like the Health Vault I was required to log in in this case with my Gmail account. At first glance I think it was relatively simple to understand.

Google Health Choices

When you sign in you get a list of links that allow you to do different tasks. Most of them are self explanatory. One thing I did notice that I liked, was the ability to see drug interactions. After you enter medications, in the appropriate area, you can click on the drug interactions link and it shows you drug interactions that may occur with your medications.

When I tried to import medical records I was expecting to see an area that would allow you to import basically any file on your computer to the website. Instead it takes you to a list of medical services that you can link to with your Google Health account, like CVS pharmacy’s or Medco. When you click the link for explore health services it takes you to a site that lists a bunch of online services for various things, like building a schedule to take your medications or medication pricing comparisons. I thought this would be nice if Microsoft’s Health Vault had these features, I went back and checked, Health Vault does but it is in a different location a little harder to notice.

Google Health Medication Entry

Entering a medication or medical condition was easy with Google Health you can just type it in or you can select one from the list they provide. You can also see that their is more options that you can enter like immunizations or Allergies.

I personally can’t say which one is better at this point Health Vault or Google Health. Health Vault gave me the option to load a file or medical record where as Google Health refers me to other companies to do so as far as I can tell. Health Vault also had the potential to import data from other devices to my account which I didn’t see a way to do in Google Health. Google Health I found easier to use and navigate, I also like the way you could select from a list of medications to enter into it, instead of just typing it in, which I think could help prevent errors. The drug interactions check on Google Health was a good idea in my mind, but I wonder how accurate it really will be. All in all I see potential in both of the services, they both currently have a few different features but I could see them both adding features to improve them, especially since both are still in development. They are both also being done by to large software companies that have the potential to make it work well. We’ll see what happens in a couple of years. The end result may be that people will use what they already have an account for so Gmail users may end up using Google Health and people that use something like Hotmail may use Health Vault.

A little about Microsoft Health Vault

Microsoft has a beta version of what they are calling Health Vault. It is publicly available so you can try it but you will need a Windows Live ID. I already had one so I gave it a try it was easy enough to sign in. It is easy to create a profile for yourself. The area of records look a little like an excel table. I have a screenshot below of the Medication table it is empty but you can see that it would be easy to read.

Medication Table.

Below I show a form of how they they allow you to add a predefined record type. In this case an allergy and how you react when and other information about the allergy.

Adding an Allergy Form

They allow you with the default options to add a fair few things like your allergies, medications, diabetic entries to track it over time, and so on. I wasn’t able to try it but their are some devices you are supposed to be able to buy that can enter info. for you so that you can easily track things like diabetic testing or blood pressure. You can also add things like Custody of Care forms. They also allow you to just upload a file so that if you can’t enter it into one of there predefined records then you can upload it as another file type and you can retrieve it and read it, its just not as convenient. You can also tell it is not quite finished, for example I could never figure out how to enter my blood type but there is a spot for it. It will also allow you to export your data as a csv (comma separated value) file which can easily be imported into other programs like excel or a database. They could easily add more formats in the future.

All in all I think it has potential but is not done yet. If I was a person with a Windows Live ID it would be an easy option to pick in the future when it is a bit more refined. The Windows Live ID also give you access to a lot of other services, like email, blogs, web pages, etc… So they could tie it into other services they already provide and give you a one sign in access to a lot of what you may want to use. But before you jump on and try Health Vault wait until I tell you about Google Health.