Medical Data and Privacy: Make it All Public?

Docs - are you more concerned about patients developing their own EMR/PHRs via Google or Microsoft, or about pharma reps surfing your insurance claims for DEA drug ID data to discern your Rx patterns?

Consumers - same question...

The privacy arguments about Google Health's trial are the same old issue, different product.

Like I said, give me a program that's already accessible by various constituents (hospitals, patients, physicians), like MSWord, and a thumb drive that I can pull out of my laptop and carry on my keychain, and voila. Why haven't I already done this? It's a pain in the hindparts, and I'd have to encode the data somehow in case I lost my keys.

I would far rather use a program developed for me, the lazy consumer, than create one on my own. If I could sign up for an independent trial (not linked to a provider/facility) with Google, would I do it? In a hot minute.

I'd even be willing to pay Google for it, say, 10 or 20 bucks a month, which allows them to increase revenues over and above their uber-successful ad driven model. AND I'd agree to watch 1-3 targeted ads that pop up right after my login page.

In fact, one way to subvert concerns about the release of private health data would be to put it all up here, on my blog. My complete medical history. The question is, am I (or any other blogger for that matter) brave enough to do that without the protection Google's program affords?

Changes the face of the debate a bit, doesn't it? Now simple password protection seems like a whole lot of safety...