HIMSS08: Google unveils details of PHR

So, the Google boys have marched into town with their own PHR, which they demonstrated last week for a marveling crowd at HIMSS08. At a modest booth on a side alley at the exhibition, Google was premiering a simple PHR interface consisting of only few text links, including a link to a feature allowing users to search for doctors, and another accessing Google Scholar to search for medical information. The PHR's key function was a link to a utility allowing users to import records from varied provider systems, then store the records online. Of course, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been making the rounds assuring privacy advocates that the search giant won't share these records without the patient's consent, but as I understand it, since Google's not a provider they're not required to meet HIPAA standards unless they feel like it. How long that will last, particularly if competitors like Microsoft and Revolution Health begin to loosen their standards?

As we've previously noted, the records will be accessible through the same name/password combination consumers use to access other Google features, such as Calendar and Gmail. OK, readers, I'm sure you know far more than me on this front, but isn't that a fairly weak security method to store extremely private information? When I asked one of the young Google-ites manning the booth this question, he brushed it away. I don't know about you, but that didn't impress me much.