Abdul Rao USF

1
Google Health Is a Safe Platform to Store
Healthcare Information
2
Many cost-effective, secure, and flexible
platforms for enterprise-wide information sharing
are currently in use in healthcare industry
world-wide. In addition to increasing the
efficiency of the healthcare providers and
facilities, this integration has radically
improved the quality of healthcare delivered to
the patients.
3
However, most existing platforms lack the ability
to integrate information across various
enterprises thus greatly limiting the usefulness
of these applications. More importantly, they
lack the most critical feature of endowing the
patients and their caregivers the ability to
access their comprehensive healthcare information
in a secure and user-friendly environment.
4
With advances in information technology that we
have witnessed in the past decade, accomplishment
of this goal is only a matter of strategic
investment of resources and commitment. This is
also in conformity with President Obama's earlier
declaration of creating comprehensive digital
health records within the next five years.
5
Under the leadership of Dr. Abdul Rao, the
Institute of Women s Health of North America the
largest healthcare provider for women in Florida,
has started implementing a strategic plan to not
only create an enterprise-wide paper-less
environment in all its campuses but to make it
available to patients and their caregivers in a
safe and user-friendly environment.
6
While speaking at an International Health
Information Technology Forum in Sarasota,
Florida, Dr. Abdul Rao, Chief Executive Officer
and Chief Research Officer, the Institute of
Women s Health of North America North America,
laid emphasis on the importance of creating a
cross-enterprise electronic platform for timely
integration of patient-specific healthcare
information.
7
With the help of Google health, which is a
secure, safe and highly flexible electronic
platform, the patients can store and manage their
comprehensive healthcare information in a central
place. Its features such as user-friendliness and
24/7 accessibility were extremely important in
the selection of this platform
8
By a group of users who were invited by the
Institute of Women's Health of North America to
participate in this process. It is anticipated
that by July 2010, majority of the patients in
the Institute s affiliated campuses would have
established a Google Health account, allowing
their data, with their prior consent, to be
securely uploaded into this platform.