Cerner execs question value of Google, Microsoft PHR services

Hot on the heels of Microsoft, Google has approached Cerner about a partnership on Google Health, the personal health record (PHR) site launched last month in beta form, however, it seems that Cerner officials are not eager to engage with the popular web-search engine

According to the Kansas City Business Journal, Cerner does not see much value in Google Health (or HealthVault). Cerner CEO Neal Patterson referenced the sites as “electronic shoeboxes,” requiring consumers to do too much of the data importing and updating. 

Google Health’s pilot is currently partnered with three pharmacy chains and several academic medical centers that have agreed to send patient data to the site. However, users who want comprehensive data from care providers inserted into their records have to do it themselves or pay Google Health partner –  MediConnect Global, an online record retrieval service at a cost of $98 for as many as 100 pages.

If pending federal legislation succeeds in creating a national network of independent health record banks, Google Health and HealthVault would translates to revenue streams for collecting patient data, hosting it and selling it in aggregate form to researchers and Google and Microsoft are big enough to help advance such new policies.

As mentioned previously in the many post on this topic, there are bound to be changes when both Giants enter the market, lets hope its for the better 🙂