Google Health is a project led by the aforementioned company that intends on creating a more understandable healthcare system by organizing information online to be used both by patients and doctors. It could be helpful, but many are sceptical about the search engine's intentions due to its dominance in search, advertising and communications, as it already holds a ton of information on each one of us. Do we really want them knowing our intimate health details too?
That question gets even trickier today, as Google Health is now encouraging users to upload "advance directives" - the official term for the document that lets your wishes known if you ever find yourself in a medical position where you're unable to communica
te (i.e. - if you want to be kept alive on a respirator if necessary).
The move is part of a new feature of Google Health that lets users upload scanned documents. And they're making the process of publishing your advance directive fairly simple. "To complete your form, download it, print it out, complete it, scan it, and upload it to Google Health. Once you've uploaded the signed form, Google Health makes it easy to share it with your caregiver," writes Google on their company blog.
The decision to have an advance directive in the first place is a very personal one, that traditionally speaking, would be something you share with your family or doctor. By having it online, and presumably shared with those that would need it, the grey area that can emerge with one's final wishes could be eliminated. But it also means putting one of the most personal documents both in Google's hands and on the Web in general, where security remains an issue.
Buenos Aires Herald
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