Google Tackles E-Prescriptions

Google Health is now associated with surescripts, a leading e-prescription network, this is great advantage because patients can access their own prescription histories online, create personal health profiles and share them with family members and trusted health care providers through secure URLs.

Google Tackles E-Prescriptions
Google Health announced earlier this month that it would partner with Surescripts, a leading e-prescription network, in an effort to allow patients to access to their own prescription histories online.

Surescripts manages e-prescriptions in all major pharmacy chains and more than 10,000 independent pharmacies. The prescription benefit and history information it contains represents 65% of US patients, Google wrote on its blog.

Using Google Health, patients can create personal health profiles and share them with family members and trusted health care providers through secure URLs. With the addition of prescription histories from Surescripts, patients will be able to create a record of their current and past medication use in case of emergencies.

The move is one in a series of attempts by the search engine giant to accelerate the use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the United States. In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Google executive Alfred Specter summed up the company’s patient-focused philosophy on EHRs: “By empowering consumers with the right information,” he wrote, “they can make more informed decisions and work with health care providers to more effectively manage their health.”

For more information, visit www. google.com/health.