The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Google Health have formed a partnership that will enable patients to view selected portions of their medical records and share new information with doctors, officials said.
The collaboration, which includes Carnegie Mellon University and data provider company dbMotion, reflects a growing trend of Web sites that allow patients to access their medical information such as prescriptions and blood work results.
Google has similar partnerships with dozens of clinics, pharmacies and institutions such as CVS, Walgreen's and The Cleveland Clinic.
"It's really going to be a new way in which physicians and patients can collaborate about disease and treatment," said Dr. William Fera, vice president of medical technologies at UPMC.
Millions of patients who get inpatient and outpatient services by UPMC will be able to use the system, expected to begin in spring. To do so, patients will create an account in Google Health, a free service started in May 2008 by the Internet search giant.
Users will be able to create a link to UPMC that will allow them to get automatic updates about test results, Fera said. They can add information about visits to other doctors or hospitals, as well as over-the-counter medications. If those medications have the potential to create a harmful interaction with other drugs, it will trigger notification from the hospital or doctor.
The service will list the sources of information added to a patients' records, which should avoid the use of inaccurate information, Fera said. The service should result in better informed patients and reduce unnecessary calls such as when patients call doctors' offices for test results, he said.
UPMC and dbMotion developed a system that aggregates data from several sources, which allows for patients to get information they can understand. The concept was tested by master's degree students in Carnegie Mellon's information systems management program, under the direction of professor Rema Padman.
This article can be found online at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.