Leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron, has revealed plans that would encourage UK residents to store their health records with Google or Microsoft, the Guardian report today.
Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault, currently operating across the pond, allows users to store their medical info securely online and gives control back to the patient.
The plans come as a criticism of the central database planned by Labour which is not due to be ready until 2014, four years behind schedule.
The Liberal Democrats, however, say that Cameron’s plans would give Google an unfair commercial advantage.
Lib Dem health spokesman, Norman Lamb, told The Times: “It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth that there are repeated references to Google, given the closeness of Team Cameron to that organisation, and it leaves concerns about commercial advantage.”
Under Tory plans, patients would be able to choose whether to store their information with a third-party company and can decide whichever they choose, to prevent one organisation from gaining a monopoly.
The plan hopes to save the country millions, however, the price for training GPs and medical professionals in multiple web-based platforms is a consideration that has not yet been reported on.
Source: Guardian
One thought on “An apple a day keeps the Google away”
Although I’m not enormously in favour of centralised, government-controlled databases, the endorsement of one or several commercial bodies to replace them does seem a little… off