14 DAY TRIAL // IBM has just announced a new software application, developed in collaboration with search giant Google and the Continua Health Alliance, which will enable personal medical devices used for patient monitoring, screening and routing evaluation to stream data results into the patient's Google Health Account, or personal health record (PHR). This product will allow users to better share their medical results with other physicians, consequently enabling a high-quality medical care network, ready at the user's discretion.
“By harnessing the rapidly growing use of remote patient monitoring across every part of the healthcare services industry, our new IBM solution greatly increases the real-time value of PHRs for consumers everywhere,” said Dan Pelino, general manager, IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry. “Open standards-based systems and technologies – freely available to anyone interested in using them – are key to fueling the development of systems that can share and exchange vital healthcare information on a timely basis, whenever and wherever it's needed.”
To better put this into perspective, IBM has provided an example of how its software application will allow users to better take advantage of their medical health record in trying to deal with a certain health problem. A user can receive daily updates on the health status of an aging parent who lives alone and suffers from an age-related health issue.
Google Health, a product launched by the Mountain View search giant back in May 2008, is one of the ways in which patients can store and update their medical record. The service is available for PC users who have access to the Internet. They can update, share and store their medical records and personal health information easily and securely online.
“Our partnership with IBM will help both providers and users gain access to their device data in a highly simplified and automated fashion,” said Sameer Samat, director for Google Health. “IBM has taken an important step in providing software that enables device manufacturers and hospitals to easily upload recorded data into a PHR platform, such as Google Health.”
The program, which was developed by IBM following the guidelines of the Continua Health Alliance, was demonstrated back in October at the Partners Connected Health Symposium in Boston, MA.