Google has officially launched a public beta of its new health and medical information service. Google has been privately testing Google Health in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic since February. But now anybody can sign up for the free service.

So what exactly is Google Health? It's a one stop for managing your personal medical records, sharing that information with doctors who use the service, and searching for health related information. You can use the service to get your prescriptions filled, check up on test results, or create alerts that will remind you to take your pills or get vaccinated on a regular basis.

Google says it will not advertise on the site, and it will not share your private data with anyone without your authorization. But the service could collect and use anonymous aggregated data.

[via PC Magazine]

While you can't sign up for Google Health yet unless you're one of a few thousands patients at the Cleveland Clinic, Google is beginning to discuss their new health-focused service. In a blog post today, Google shows off a new screenshot which gives us a good idea of the type of information Google Healthusers will be able to store and sort online.

Users will be able to keep track of their conditions, allergies, prescribed medications, and previous medical procedures. But you'll also be able to find doctors, search for health information and save pages to your profile. Most importantly, you'll have access to your medical records wherever you are, without having to wait for a doctor to transfer files to your new doctor every time you move.

Google and the Cleveland Clinic hospital in Cleveland, Ohio will begin storing medical records for thousands of patients online today. Patient records at the Cleveland Clinic are already stored electronically, but by participating in a pilot project for Google Health, patients will be able to access their private records from any computer.

Patient data including medical histories, allergies, prescriptions, and diagnoses will be stored online, which leads to at least two questions:

1. Will people feel that their data is safe simply because they've come up with an unhackable password like "1234?"
2. Do you really want Google to know your allergies, and do you trust Google not to try to sell you antihistamines with this information?

Of course, when Google rolled out Gmail, there were a lot of people complaining that the service represented a massive invasion of privacy since machines would be reading each email in order to place relevant text-based ads. And now most people don't think twice about that. So we're going to go out on a limb and predict that if Google can demonstrate that its online health records system is actually useful, people might be willing to overlook their privacy concerns.

As for the password protection, there's no way to guarantee that someone won't hack their way into your data. But there are some basic tips you should follow to come up with a secure password. And you should really use a different password for each online account you have so that someone who finds their way into your Flickr account can't access your medical records.

New York-based medical appointment scheduling service ZocDoc is expanding its offering today. When the company launched last year, users could make appointments with a few dozen dentists in New York city. This week, ZocDoc is adding primary care physicians in Manhattan to the mix.

The service is designed as an alternative for patients who would normally go to their medical insurance provider's web site to find a doctor. That process can be complicated and you don't end up with much useful information about a doctor. ZocDoc includes an easy to use scheduling feature and an user feedback from patients who have previously seen a doctor.

Because most doctors and dentists have unfilled appointments or cancellations throughout the day, ZocDoc makes it easy to schedule last minute appointments without calling a dozen doctor's offices first.

ZocDoc is still limited to New York only, and there are a relatively small number of doctors and dentists signed up. But when we tried out the service for ourselves a few months back, we had no trouble finding an appointment with a nearby dentist on short notice. The company does have plans to expand the service to other markets in time.

Google will launch its online consumer health service early next year. We've known that both Google and Microsoft were working on health related services for a while now. But Microsoft beat Google to the punch, launching its HealthVault portal earlier this month.

So what can we expect from Google Health? Google search chief Marissa Mayer says odds are if you're searching for health information online you're already using Google. The company hopes to leverage its search and data organization technology to help patients maintain their personal health information.

Google Health lets patients store personal medical records, search for health information, manage diet and other health information, and even find local doctors. The service will also have tools that allow doctors to better manage their information, and we assume, share that info with their patients.

But this raises an interesting question. Are doctors going to want to sign up for Microsoft, Google, ZocDoc, and other online services just to communicate with their patients? It seems more likely that an individual doctor or medical practice will pick one service and then stick with it.

For example, if you take your kid to Fluffy Bunny pediatrics, you'll find that the doctors are willing to share all of your child's medical records with you over Microsoft HealthVault. If you sign up for Google Health, you'll have to get old-fashioned paper records. Because otherwise, Fluffy Bunny doctors would have to spend time submitting all of their documents to 2 or more different sites, which would increase their workload, not decrease it. This, of course would force health consumers to sign up for multiple services if they want to make sure they have access to the latest information from all of their doctors, meaning that you're the one with a disorganized mess, not your doctor.

So while we like the idea of having a single online location to conduct all of your health-related searches, store all of your medical records, and keep your doctor and family up to date, we're just not sure there's room for multiple competing services in this market.

While ZocDoc is busy creating a platform for doctors to interact with their patients, Dr. Jay Parkinson figures he already has the tools he needs to run a Web 2.0-style medical practice.

Want to make an appointment to see the doctor? Check out his Google Calendar for availability and shoot Parkinson a text message or e-mail. He'll text you back and then make a house call with as little as an hour's notice. He doesn't have an office. Instead he has e-mail, instant messenger, and a cellphone. And Parkinson uses Life Record to keep his medical records online.

Parkinson is based in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, where he is targeting young creative professionals, many of whom are freelancers. That means they don't have full time jobs with health benefits. So he charges $500 a year for an initial checkup and up to 2 house calls. If you need more, you can pay per visit. If you need a specialist, he'll direct you to one. Since Parkinson isn't part of a medical network, he's contacted thousands of NY area doctors to discover specialists with the lowest prices for a variety of procedures.

What do you think? House calls are great and all, but would you be willing to see a doctor that doesn't even have an office?

[via Wired]

ZocDoc is launching a limited public beta today. The site lets you search for a doctor or dentist based on location, specialty, and what kind of insurance they accept. It's sort of like OpenTable, but instead of making restaurant reservations you're making making appointments that could be matters of life or death. We guess the same could be true of some restaurants.

At launch, ZocDoc is only available for dentists in New York. Eventually the site plans to add doctors, first in New York and then in other cities. Visitors to the site will be able to vote on which cities they want to add, and the goal is to be in 1 or 2 more cities within the next year and in 8 or more cities within 2 years.

The site is officially launching at TechCrunch40 tomorrow, but we wanted to know why anyone would use the site, so we interviewed CEO Cyrus Massoumi (see the video). He says he's confident ZocDoc will fill the needs of both patients and doctors, and estimates that online medical appointments could become a $15-30 billion industry. We're a bit dubious of those numbers, but when it comes to medical expenses, anything is possible. Patients won't have to pay to use the service. Doctors will.

You can also download the audio of this interview if you'd like or subscribe to our podcast for all our audio interviews. Our Podcast is also available through iTunes.

Earlier this year Microsoft picked up Medstory, prompting speculation that the software maker would be coming out with some sort of health-related search engine. Now the New York Times is reporting that both Microsoft and Google have slightly more ambitious plans in the health space.

Microsoft plans to launch a health service later this year that will involve some a way for patients to store health information online, on their computers, and cellphones. There will also be an online search component, although the company won't say much about the details.

Google is expected to launch Google Health next year. A small number of health professionals have seen a demo of the product, and Google Blogoscoped has a number of screenshots. By the look of it, Google Health will let you store your family's medical records online. You can also schedule reminders to make appointments with your doctor or refill your prescriptions.

And of course, there's a search function. You can search Google's doctor directory to find a medical professional near you. And you can search for health related information like suggested treatments or drug interactions.

So Google Calendar comes out, and where are the hacks? Good thing they opened it up a bit... Still, it's good to see people using the tool in some clever ways. Witness the use of Calendar for doctors. I don't know how HIPAA affects a public calendar (or the potential for exploit, given the beta status), but it's cool that a doc would think to share their schedule with the public. Even better is using Calendar to monitor your own medical condition. And if you're not into humans, preferring instead the gentle hum of a server as your constant companion, there's always a way to monitor your servers with Google Calendar.