Hi Larry and Nathan, We're very excited to hear about your interests in using Google Health for public/consumer health initiatives. We always like to hear about new ways that Health can reach users.
I've shared your ideas with our product development team. In the near term, however, we encourage you to consider how you might integrate with Health using its existing account management framework. Larry, one issue with storing health information in GH without explicit user consent is that Health is not a HIPAA covered entity. Users must consent to sharing their PHI before it can be stored in Health by a third-party. This consent is generally handled electronically, by the third-party, as part of the Health linkage process, which can also include Google account creation. Outside of this constraint, which is a significant one, it sounds like you're looking for functionality akin to Google Apps for Businesses, which Nathan mentioned. With Apps, a domain (e.g epublichealth.org) administrator can provision and manage accounts for users, and using 2- legged OAuth, third-party applications can share data with Apps using the domain's credentials, without requiring the user to verify the linkage (the user's written/electronic authorization, however, would need to come in advance). From a technological standpoint, it might be possible to use Apps to do accomplish what you're looking to do; however, from a regulatory standpoint, I'm not certain it's feasible. Paul On Jul 23, 7:08 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > Nathan, > > Thanks for the information. The GH model doesn't fit our needs very > well without a group structure. Rightfully, the GH model is user > centric vs. group centric. While the ability to add a profile for > someone else under a single ID addresses the issue, it would be > unwieldy for large groups like ours (200K). I'm sure there is a limit > as to how many profiles you can add under one ID but I couldn't find a > limit documented. In addition, organizing around individual IDs would > allow us to transfer ones "medical records" to them when they leave > our group. > > Hopefully, GH is considering our perspectives. > > Larry > > On Jul 22, 9:21 am, Nathan <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Larry and Paul, > > > We are dealing with a bit of the same issue and have worked on a > > couple different strategies. Our project is public health related to > > the extent that we are engaging users through kiosk stations at > > community clinics and are acting as promotoras/concierges for people > > in order to connect our service to a Google Health account in order to > > increase patient engagement in their health management. > > > We have implemented the walk-through information and education pieces > > necessary to walk a user through the handshakes required to complete > > the process, but this still can be a bit exhaustive for the less tech- > > savvy (often less literate as well) user and/or someone working from a > > kiosk at the clinic. > > > It would be great to have a way to have some bulk accounts available > > for easy sign-up that we could use so that promotoras didn't have to > > work through the whole process for each person. This would all assume > > of course that the enrollee had access to and signed the necessary > > Terms and Consents and were explicitly made aware that they were going > > to be using Google Health to store their health records. We want to > > make sure that people are properly informed especially in regards to > > understanding issues of HIPAA, etc..., the thing is that for less tech- > > savvy users the current method only seems to cause more confusion. > > > I tried contacting Google to see about getting a set of Google App > > accounts, but since we are not a non-profit then I was told by agents > > that we would have to pay the regular rate per user ($50) which > > wouldn't be feasible for what we are trying to accomplish. Tried to > > get further help in this regard but couldn't seem to get further > > communication on this matter. > > > At any rate, it would be great to do some collective thinking on ways > > to properly work through this issue and make it viable for public > > health projects. Please let me know if there is continued conversation > > in this regard. > > > Thanks, > > > Nathan > > > On Jul 20, 6:53 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > Paul, > > > > Thanks for the reply. I was beginning to think that GH was a 20%er. > > > > In this particular case it is not possible to direct each individual > > > to sign up. This is a special case population that does not have and > > > is not allowed access to the Internet. There are about 200,000 people > > > in this group. > > > > If you would like to take this discussion private I can give you a > > > little more detail. I'm still very interested in pursuing the notion > > > of public health groups using GH. Please advise. > > > > Larry > > > > On Jul 19, 3:26 pm, "Paul (Google)" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Hi Larry, > > > > > Thanks for the question, and welcome to the group! > > > > > Users of Google services, including Health, are required to agree to > > > > Google's Terms of Service before their account is created. Therefore, > > > > we presently don't offer automatic account creation services for > > > > Health. Would it be possible for you to direct a user to the account > > > > creation and Health linkage instructions prior to leaving your system? > > > > > Paul (Google) > > > > > On Jul 17, 2:00 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > > > > wrote: > > > > > > We're considering implementing Google Health for a public health > > > > > group. We'd like to be able to create a Google Health account for > > > > > each member, existing and new. When a new person enters the system > > > > > we'd like to create a new Google Health account and when the leave the > > > > > system we'd turn the account over to the owner. > > > > > > The process for creating new account is simple enough as is the turn > > > > > over upon exiting the system. The problem I'm facing is the > > > > > conversion of several thousand existing members to Google Health. I > > > > > see no way in any of the APIs to automatically create a Google > > > > > (Health) Account, say from an existing list of members. > > > > > > Does anyone have any suggestions on how to create a Google Health > > > > > Account for each of an existing large group of members? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > Larry -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Health Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. 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