IBM has announced new software that will help patients to transfer their health records directly from personal medical devices to Google Health account or any other patient health record (PHR).
Launched in May last year, Google Health enables users to store and manage their health records by opening a free account. There is no restriction on the quantity of information stored in the account. Users can also create profiles for their kids, parents, or anyone else.
Google Health partners with various healthcare providers to enable the users to directly transfer their health data from hospital records to Google Health account. IBM’s new software is used to transfer the health information to patients’ Google Health accounts in real-time.
This helps patients to keep their health information accurate and share it with doctors and others, even when they are far away.
Sameer Samat, director for Google Health, said: Our partnership with IBM will help both providers and users gain access to their device data in a highly simplified and automated fashion. 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.
Developed on the guidelines of Continua Health Alliance, IBM’s software is partly based on technologies developed by healthcare open-source communities Eclipse and Open Health Tools.
Dan Pelino, general manager for IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry, said: By harnessing the rapidly growing use of remote patient monitoring, our new IBM solution increases the real-time value of PHRs for consumers everywhere. Open standards-based systems and technologies are key to fuelling the development of systems that can share and exchange vital healthcare information on a timely basis.
The software is expected to support chronic disease management, health and wellness, and elderly care; utilise Services-Oriented Architectures to build healthcare systems and services; and support the development of software using the Google Health open platform.
