In a blow to all your health-records-in-the-cloud dreams, Google said that on January 1, 2012 it will shut down its Google Health project, once celebrated as a major step in getting electronic health records (and subsequently shared genomic information) to mainstream use. TechCrunch has a video with Adam Bosworth, who created the project for Google, saying that the main problem with the product was that "it's not social."
A commentary by Dave Chase on TechCrunch says the real problem with Google Health was the inherent flaw in the healthcare insurance model. "Frankly, Google could have done all the right things, but if the reimbursement model doesn’t change Personal Health Records will remain irrelevant for most healthcare providers," he writes.
Over at Highlight Health, Walter Jessen says that this doesn't spell the end of the electronic health record movement. He points to Microsoft's HealthVault, which the company "positioned ... quite differently from Google Health," as a project that is already seeing more success than Google's foray in the space.
Daily Scan's sister publication Informatics Iron has more on this story here.