Standards Developed for Electronic Health Records

Trying to overcome public reticence toward putting health records online, Google, Microsoft and health care providers and insurers developed privacy standards for such information, reports The Associated Press on Newsvine.com.

Of course, with Health Vault and Google Health, Microsoft and Google have a vested interest in the "Connecting For Health" guidelines. The sites allow users to upload, store and view personal information, and share it with medical professionals and insurance companies.

Trying to assuage fears raised because the two companies are not subject to the HIPAA requirements, the guidelines extend the same level of protection to e-records as that required by the federal government for paper records.

Among the groups working with The Markle Foundation to create the guidelines were WebMD, lobbying group AARP, Aetna, America's Health Insurance Plans, BlueCross BlueShield Association, and the American Medical Association, acccording to News.com.