Earlier this month, Microsoft announced its HealthVault platform designed to let any particular individual collect all of their health information into one location. Now, Google VP of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer has announced that they, too, are planning to jump in the healthcare industry with a similar service, dubbed Google Health.
Mayer said the company's health offering that incorporates personal medical records, health care-related search features, diet and exercise regimens, a localized "find a doctor" application, and other elements. But, unlike Microsoft's HealthVault, the Google Health service is still in the drawing-board stage.
Aside from the obvious privacy and security concerns inherent to both Microsoft and Google's health offerings, their biggest challenge will be to get the backing of the big players in the medical industry. In any case, it will be interesting to see how they can leverage their search expertise along with their data storage and organization capacities in the healthcare space.