How far has Google Health really fallen?

John Moore of Chilmark Research, a respected health IT industry blogger, suggested this week that Google Health is "cryogenically" frozen in place after the disbanding of most of its development team. The most recent departure is that of Missy Krasner, who tells FierceHealthIT that she left Google Health after "five wonderful years."

Google officials did not respond to requests for comment on Moore's assertion, but there's little doubt that Google Health has fallen behind Microsoft HealthVault, its main rival as a web-based personal health record platform. Google has signed up far fewer industry partners than HealthVault; and, unlike HealthVault, it has not announced it will allow providers to upload clinical data using the new Direct Project messaging protocol.

What's more, to reassure the world that it was still in the healthcare race, Google announced last fall that it would take a new approach focused on wellness and fitness. That game plan, though, hasn't had the same impact as HealthVault's deals with the Mayo Clinic for educational content, Quest Diagnostics for lab results, or Surescripts and some national health plans for prescription data.

Recently, I learned that some healthcare systems are uploading their patients' clinical summaries to Google Health. That, to me, suggests that the platform isn't quite on its last legs. Still, its future plans remain unknown. 

To learn more:
- read the Chilmark Research post
- check out my BNET Healthcare post on Google Health from September