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.