Apparently not every service offered by Google is a success as Google found that its Google Health did not catch on as expected. So Google Health will be retired January 1, 2012 with data available through January 1, 2013. Google Health’s goal was “to create a service that would give people access to their personal health and wellness information, “ but Google announced:
Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would. There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven’t found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people.
Google announced the means by which users could retrieve their Health data:
If you’re a Google Health user, we’ve made it easy for you to retrieve your data from Google Health any time before January 1, 2013. Just go to the site to download your information in any of several formats: you can print and save it, or transfer it to other services that support industry-standard data formats. Available formats include:
Printable PDF including all the records in your Google Health profile
Industry-standard Continuity of Care Record (CCR) XML that can be imported into other personal health tools such as Microsoft® HealthVault™
Comma-separated value (CSV) files that can be imported into spreadsheets and database programs for ongoing tracking and graphing
HTML and XML versions of the original “data notices” sent to your Google Health profile by linked data providers
A unified ZIP archive that includes all files you’ve uploaded to your profile, plus all of the formats above
Given the federal government $19+ billion investment to automate health records it’s interesting to see that Google Health was not a winner in this space.