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Pfizer (in the Guise of Pharmacia) Pfound to Violate Pfraud Law, While Pfizer CEO Made Pfederal Reserve Advisor

It was only a month ago that Pfizer Inc, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, submitted to a gargantuan $2.3 billion settlement and yet another corporate integrity agreement. As we posted <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/09/pfour-legal-settlements-for-pfizer-why.html">here</a>, this was the company's fourth major settlement of charges of unethical marketing behavior since 2002. Now Pfizer is in trouble again. As reported <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKN6h5RGezwol5GiqLvvTxaVAYUQD9B1VSL00">by the AP</a>, <blockquote> A judge on Tuesday imposed $4.5 million in forfeitures on prescription drug company Pharmacia Inc.[a Pfizer Inc subsidiary] for misrepresenting prices and defrauding Wisconsin's Medicaid system. A jury in February found that Pharmacia violated the state's Medicaid fraud law 1.44 million times over a decade. State Justice Department attorneys had demanded about $212 million in forfeitures, but Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess said jurors grossly overcalculated the number of violations. After reviewing the evidence, the judge found the actual tally was 4,578. He elected to set the forfeiture level at $1,000 per violation. The judge said he was concerned that if he ordered the maximum $68.6 million Pharmacia would pass the expense to consumers and nothing showed any of the fraudulent $7 million went directly to Pharmacia's profits. On the other hand, the judge said, a $100 per violation forfeiture totaling $457,800 would 'not register so much as blip on Pharmacia's multibillion-dollar annual fiscal radar screen' and a higher amount would draw attention to the need to reform pharmaceutical reimbursement scales. </blockquote> I must say that I do not understand the reasoning the judge used to set the penalties. If he thought that Pfizer would merely pass along a large penalty to patients, why would the company not pass along a smaller penalty to them. In any case, this is just the latest in a long string of cases in which a health care corporation was found to have committed unethical or illegal acts, but the only the corporation itself, but not the people who actually performed, directed or authorized the acts, paid a penalty. And when the penalty is paid by the corporation, its impact can be spread over all stock-holders, all employees, and all patients, clients, or customers, thus diluting its effect, and protecting those who authorized, directed, or performed the acts in question. I submit again that only when the people in health care leadership who perform, direct or authorize bad behavior pay penalties will bad behavior be deterred. Note that while Pfizer may be the world's largest pharmaceutical corporation, it seems to be the corporation most often cited for, convicted of, or having to make settlements for bad behavior (see some recent examples <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/Pfizer">here</a>). (Although in the current case, you would have to read the news report very carefully to realize that Pfizer was involved. The fact that Pharmacia is a Pfizer subsidiary was only mentioned in passing.) Nonetheless, one would think Pfizer's leadership would be ashamed, and their reputation would suffer. But no. At about the same time this latest settlement was announced, this <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0160921020091001">report from Reuters </a>appeared: <blockquote> The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday that Pfizer (PFE.N) chief executive Jeffrey Kindler and Loews Corp (L.N) chief executive James Tisch will fill the two vacancies on its board of directors. Kindler was elected to finish a three-year term ending Dec. 31, taking the seat PepsiCo (PEP.N) chief executive Indra Nooyi resigned from in February. Regional Federal Reserve banks' boards of directors offer recommendations on Fed policy, but have no policy-making powers. They also provide anecdotal information about the business conditions that help inform the central bank. Regional Fed banks have three classes of directors: Class A, elected by member banks to represent banks; Class B, elected by member banks but representing the public; and Class C, which represent the public but are chosen by the Board of Governors in Washington. Kindler and Tisch join Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive of General Electric (GE.N) as Class B directors. </blockquote> I suppose Kindler could offer quite a bit of "anecdotal information" about bad behavior in the pharmaceutical industry. But it seems rather comic to think about the CEO of the world's biggest, and lately baddest pharmaceutical company as "representing the public." Rather, and more seriously, this is just the latest example of how leaders of health care organizations have joined the superclass, and how the superclass protects its own.

Pfizer (in the Guise of Pharmacia) Pfound to Violate Pfraud Law, While Pfizer CEO Made Pfederal Reserve Advisor

It was only a month ago that Pfizer Inc, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, submitted to a gargantuan $2.3 billion settlement a...

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Quickly view formatted PDFs in your search results

Google search results sometimes include documents that were not originally formatted to be viewed in a web browser, such as PDFs. In the past, the only way to view these documents was to download them and open them in a separate viewer application. To provide an alternative, we made it possible to quickly and easily <a href="http://www.google.com/help/faq_filetypes.html#application">view these files</a> as HTML right in a web browser by clicking "View as HTML." This was an improvement, but unfortunately the "View as HTML" option loses some of the formatting from the original PDF, such as graphics, tables, fonts and other elements. Today, we've added new links to "Quick View" PDFs in your browser with the formatting intact. The new links are based on the same technology that's available <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/fast-pdf-viewing-right-in-your-browser.html">in Google Docs and Gmail</a>, as well as to <a href="http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/09/view-online-files-using-google-docs.html">webmasters</a> through the Google Docs viewer. We've been rolling this technology out to the search results page since July, and as of today we've added "Quick View" links to more than 50% of the PDFs in our index. The new links appear at the end of the second line of the result, right underneath the title. For example, here is a search result for the IRS 1099 form: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NzrJjCLno5SAtBtYXYLiDXN-i4_zb1EDnt4pBI1ZmWL0yd2jnKwegBMVVt4ymG7TAiiRaFfRlErpmfD9lF5QcRuYL0KNzt3Oy09imZiCzUcBxGuwxDimnrQiI0F2B3zIO36y15QbCg-k/s1600-h/cgqmq8g4_53cc65rwgd_b.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389906586994960562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NzrJjCLno5SAtBtYXYLiDXN-i4_zb1EDnt4pBI1ZmWL0yd2jnKwegBMVVt4ymG7TAiiRaFfRlErpmfD9lF5QcRuYL0KNzt3Oy09imZiCzUcBxGuwxDimnrQiI0F2B3zIO36y15QbCg-k/s400/cgqmq8g4_53cc65rwgd_b.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 249px;" /></a> Clicking "Quick View" will open up the PDF right in your browser with graphics, formatting and tables preserved. This is what it looks like after opening:<div> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qAXokwtt6oBVUy5Kx7v1ZZFz4U72zrvriQzU_pnE_koAASBanE8p7oATM3yZMe95Wo2qzwFBdSjsKMZJtpIhdq-q1FAeNUuRMU11kHpp8FzS9t_CuyvzjdikQxv6ZnkDR972-Y2Jj4pO/s1600-h/cgqmq8g4_22qzzc26f9_b.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389906594005416786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qAXokwtt6oBVUy5Kx7v1ZZFz4U72zrvriQzU_pnE_koAASBanE8p7oATM3yZMe95Wo2qzwFBdSjsKMZJtpIhdq-q1FAeNUuRMU11kHpp8FzS9t_CuyvzjdikQxv6ZnkDR972-Y2Jj4pO/s400/cgqmq8g4_22qzzc26f9_b.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" /></a> Over time we'll be rolling out the viewer for more documents and file types. In the meantime, in some cases you'll see the "View as HTML" link, which allows you to see a basic HTML-only version. Viewing PDF documents in your browser might not make paying taxes any more fun — but hopefully this feature will make it a little bit faster!<div> Posted by Krista Davis, Software Engineer, and Raj Krishnan, Product Manager</div></div>

Quickly view formatted PDFs in your search results

Google search results sometimes include documents that were not originally formatted to be viewed in a web browser, such as PDFs. In the pas...

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Health IT Vendors Trafficking in Patient Data?

Of all of the risks regarding electronic health records, the largest is perhaps to privacy and confidentiality, and other civil liberties through the ability of information technology to rapidly duplicate and disseminate massive amounts of data. This duplication and dissemination can be performed in a controlled manner for the betterment of patient and public health, but it can also occur in a harmful manner that serves the interests of others, often without meaningful informed consent by the patients (legal jargon on typical disclosure forms that almost nobody reads or understands does not fall into what I consider "meaningful"). This can occur in, for example, the stealing of computers and computer backup disks, tape etc., which seems to be a common occurrence in the news in recent years, or through corporate processes that carry inherent risk of abuse. Here is just one recent example of both data mismanagement and theft involving not patients (by chance) but physicians themselves: <div class="story_headline"></div><blockquote style="font-family:arial;"><div class="story_headline"><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09280/1003481-28.stm">Blue Cross: Thousands of doctors' computer data stolen</a></div> <div class="story_lastupdate">Wednesday, October 07, 2009</div> <div class="story_byline">By Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</div> Tens of thousands of doctors under contract with Pittsburgh's Highmark Inc. are being notified that their personal information, including Social Security numbers or tax ID numbers, may have been compromised when a laptop containing sensitive data was stolen from a Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association employee. Physicians and specialists in western and central Pennsylvania are being notified of the breach this week, according to a Highmark spokesman. Across the country, the number of affected doctors is expected to reach the hundreds of thousands once a review of the theft is complete, said national Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association spokesman Jeff Smokler. The stolen computer did not contain patient information. [Simply due to luck -ed.] The letter sent to Highmark providers said "a BCBSA employee [transferred] provider data information onto a personal laptop, in violation of BCBSA's established data security policies.</blockquote> I have recently become aware of an example of purposeful corporate healthcare data trafficking that gives me pause. Cerner’s LifeSciences <a href="http://www.cerner.com/public/filedownload.asp?LibraryID=36854">traffics in patient data</a> taken from the EMRs its company sells to healthcare organizations. See the document below. They advertise: <blockquote>Cerner LifeSciences’ data warehouses and consulting services help you manage your R&D opportunity through Cerner’s analytical solutions. Through our data mining of our vast warehouse of electronic health records (EHRs), you can accelerate development processes and reduce business risks. Each year, new compounds debut new abilities or first-in-class molecules. Far more common are new compounds that target the same receptors as compounds already in the market ... This is when Cerner LifeSciences makes it possible to analyze anonymous, HIPAA-compliant, EHR-derived data for efficacy and safety. </blockquote> Cerner apparently includes contract language with their HIT customers that allows them to traffic in "de-identified" patient data for sale to drug companies and others, getting the data essentially as a "value add" (to the HIT vendor, that is) from its healthcare IT customers. (The flyer below does not indicate pricing of healthcare data, but it's likely substantial.) <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCPzr_1pknEEBMjkdunC3RxoXOGScAax4EYuyE_3OCXCsxtI_7AvblP_ztLpi7hEJ_tiXI62uWpw6KcbB-W4hcWZYytdLoDq8VSXrr64fu9y1_w5WUU8hIeLNES6BJdkJQWb7AdpPABbm/s1600-h/cerner_data.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389847579833593810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCPzr_1pknEEBMjkdunC3RxoXOGScAax4EYuyE_3OCXCsxtI_7AvblP_ztLpi7hEJ_tiXI62uWpw6KcbB-W4hcWZYytdLoDq8VSXrr64fu9y1_w5WUU8hIeLNES6BJdkJQWb7AdpPABbm/s320/cerner_data.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 228px; height: 288px;" /></a>A major HIT vendor selling patient data to anyone who wants it. Click to enlarge. (Full copy is at <a href="https://exchangeweb.drexel.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=feb600bc1eca4fb3b1b18b15975909cb&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cerner.com%2fpublic%2ffiledownload.asp%3fLibraryID%3d36854">this link</a> in PDF format). </div> This practice raises numerous questions: <ul><li>Meaningful informed consent issues: as an example, of 1000 patients at one of the facilities using this vendor's HIT products, what percentage would be able to tell me they know their data is being trafficked to pharmaceutical companies and other organizations for profit?</li></ul><ul><li>Healthcare data ownership and stewardship issues: who, exactly, extracts the data for aggregation and sale? Hospital employees properly trained and bonded (i.e., Healthcare Information Management professionals) regarding privacy of patient data? IT personnel lacking such credentials and experience? HIT vendor employees?</li></ul><ul><li>De-identification issues: what processes are being used to de-identify data? Who is performing it? At some point before the data is de-identified, it is protected information in identifiable form. Is access to the data during de-identification audited in any way, and if so, by whom? If not, why not? (Also see article on re-identification below.) </li></ul><ul><li>Legal issues: who is, by contract, liable for data breaches that occur in the transfer process?</li></ul><ul><li>Fiduciary issues: as I expressed in my July 22, 2009 JAMA letter to the editor regarding "vendor hold harmless" and IT defects gag clauses, are hospital executives further violating their fiduciary responsibilities by signing HIT contracts that surrender ownership of patient data to third parties? (see my posts "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/07/health-care-information-technology.html" style="font-style: italic;">JAMA letter: Health Care Information Technology, Hospital Responsibilities, and Joint Commission Standards</a>" and "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/07/inquiry-to-joint-commission-on-points-i.html" style="font-style: italic;">Inquiry to Joint Commission on points I raised in my JAMA letter on HIT</a>" for more on those issues.</li></ul><ul><li>Pharma integrity issues: with the many stories on this blog and others about ethically questionable pharma practices such as <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/ghost%20writing">ghostwriting</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/manipulating%20clinical%20research">manipulation of clinical research</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppression of research</a>, pushing drugs on physicians and patients for unapproved <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search?q=unapproved">off-label </a>uses, etc., what are these organizations going to do with the data? Who will have access to it, and will their access be audited? Are they going to resell it? Might they try to re-identify data to locate individuals of interest? And so forth. </li></ul> Serious consideration of these issues in vendor-led healthcare data trafficking becomes more imperative in the face of just how easy it is to "re-identify" data: <blockquote>Ohm, Paul: "Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization" (August 13, 2009). University of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-12. Available at SSRN: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1450006">http://ssrn.com/abstract=1450006</a> Abstract: Computer scientists have recently undermined our faith in the privacy-protecting power of anonymization, the name for techniques for protecting the privacy of individuals in large databases by deleting information like names and social security numbers. These scientists have demonstrated they can often 'reidentify' or 'deanonymize' individuals hidden in anonymized data with astonishing ease. By understanding this research, we will realize we have made a mistake, labored beneath a fundamental misunderstanding, which has assured us much less privacy than we have assumed. This mistake pervades nearly every information privacy law, regulation, and debate, yet regulators and legal scholars have paid it scant attention. We must respond to the surprising failure of anonymization, and this Article provides the tools to do so. </blockquote> Further, Cerner is digging deeper into the life sciences, licensing its "Discovere" system to clinical trials vendor such as <a href="http://www.quintiles.com/">Quintiles Transnational</a> (<a href="http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2009/09/28/daily41.html">link</a> to story in Bizjournals.com): <blockquote>Quintiles will use Cerner’s Web-based Discovere product, whose features include the ability to integrate data from study participants and site researchers and increase data quality by reducing transcription errors, the companies said in a release. A Cerner spokeswoman said the company isn’t disclosing financial terms of the deal.</blockquote> According to <a href="http://histalk2.com/2009/10/04/monday-morning-update-10509/">an entry</a> at HISTalk, part of "Discovere" is the former First Genetic Trust technology that Cerner bought some time ago. Quintiles signed an agreement with Cerner back in 2001 and took an equity position in it. The Discovere modules include biobanking, research registries, public health investigator workflow, clinical trials management, and adverse event reporting. Is Cerner also selling HIT-gleaned patient data to Quintiles and other CRO's (clinical research organizations)? Other HIT vendors are sure to follow in Cerner's footsteps for competitive reasons, if not already doing so. Another major issue: HIT vendors like this are devoting resources to profit from medical data, diverting resources from their core business. Might health IT vendors make better use of their resources, such as improving the core products they sell to hospitals and clinicians, avoiding the "mission hostile user experience" I wrote about in <a href="http://tinyurl.com/hostileuserexper">this eight part series</a>? Might they devote resources to solving problems that are affecting entire national health IT programs, instead of peddling data from the systems they have managed to implement to third parties? From the UK's experiences as recorded in 2007 by the former head of their National Program for HIT in the NHS (NPfIT): <blockquote>Richard Granger has said he was “ashamed of the quality of some of the systems put into the NHS by Connecting for Health suppliers”, singling Cerner out for criticism (<a href="http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/item.cfm?ID=2854">link</a>). Going further than he before in acknowledging the extent of failings of systems provided to some parts of the NHS - such as Milton Keynes – the Connecting for Health boss, said "Sometimes we put in stuff that I'm just ashamed of. Some of the stuff that Cerner has put in recently is appalling."</blockquote> As recorded in Jan. 2009 by the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15304.htm">UK House of Commons - Public Accounts Committee</a> : <blockquote> ... Termination of Fujitsu's contract has caused uncertainty among Trusts in the South and new deployments have stopped. One option: have a choice of either Lorenzo or [Cerner] Millennium. There are, however, considerable problems with existing deployments of [Cerner] Millennium and serious concerns about the prospects for future deployments of Lorenzo. ... Programme not providing value for money at present because there have been few successful deployments of the [Cerner] Millennium system and none of Lorenzo in any Acute Trust. Trusts cannot be expected to take on the burden of deploying care records systems that do not work effectively … the Department should assess the financial case for allowing Trusts to put forward applications for central funding for alternative systems compatible with the objectives of the Programme.</blockquote><p:colorscheme colors="#ffffff,#000000,#808080,#000000,#bbe0e3,#333399,#009999,#99cc00"><div shape="_x0000_s1026"><div class="O1" style=""> </div></div></p:colorscheme>Most recently, in the UK Cerner's Millennium product is blamed for the jump from 1,700 to 23,000 patients <a href="http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5260/barts_18_week_backlog_in_thousands">whose referrals don’t meet the 18-week target from referral to treatment</a> at Barts and the London NHS trust. Should HIT vendors be devoting resources to data peddling, instead of focusing on their core mission to produce usable HIT that can facilitate healthcare professionals in providing care? Finally, as an added item of interest, our current healthcare "czar", <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy-Ann_DeParle">Nancy-Ann DeParle</a> was on the board of Cerner just prior to appointment in the current administration. All of these issues considered, while I am not implying improprieties current or future, the possible permutations of problems in the resale of clinical data by HIT vendors potentially created by careless data stewardship, profit motive, conflict of interest, malevolent motives, etc. is endless. If there ever were a scenario for civil liberties groups to explore, it's this one. -- SS addendum on HIT quality and COI issues: found this at <a href="http://histalk2.com/2009/10/06/news-10709/">HISTalk</a> as well: <blockquote> IT outsourcing puts MU Health at risk An associate professor of pathology at University of Missouri <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/oct/06/it-outsourcing-puts-mu-health-at-risk/">criticizes</a> his employer’s decision to outsource to Cerner … A simple Internet search turns up a plethora of complaints and reports of lawsuits regarding the effectiveness of Cerner’s software and, more important, its failure to provide requested support. The pattern of receiving untested software has been a recurring problem at this institution ... ... University <st1:placetype st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype>’s success depends largely on the effectiveness of the people in information technology. In the past on two occasions, the billing was so flawed the hospital faced serious fiscal problems. The most recent one was in 2002, when the hospital’s viability was threatened. The major issue was the inability to produce accurate and timely billings, which cost the system millions of dollars. <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on"></st1:placetype></st1:place> [where have I seen that before? How about: <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=Insufficient%20IT%20management">here</a> (Yale) and <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=miami">here</a> - ed.] ... The medical school’s administrative residency program is on probation and is undergoing critical review; a major factor is that the Cerner system is so cumbersome that resident training is compromised … Three years ago, the radiology department dropped a Cerner software program because it was seriously flawed.” ... [UM President] Forsee has several business and personal ties to the company (Cerner). Forsee and Cerner CEO Neal Patterson serve together on at least two boards of trustees, and online records indicate Forsee’s son-in-law, Brandon Bell, works for Cerner.” </blockquote> If this all is true, I believe the problems with HIT in general are no better now, and probably worse, than when I started <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/medinfo.htm">writing about such issues</a> a decade ago. I rest my case on whether the HIT vendors should focus on solving basic quality, usability and efficacy issues before peddling data ... -- SS

Health IT Vendors Trafficking in Patient Data?

Of all of the risks regarding electronic health records, the largest is perhaps to privacy and confidentiality, and other civil liberties th...

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Making intranets more like the Internet with enterprise search

Employees at big companies often have mountains of information available to do their jobs — information that lives (and hides!) in various areas within the organization. The information can lie buried deep within an enterprise content management system or a company intranet. Unlike the Internet, however, this info isn't necessarily well organized — there isn't always a searchable index to sift through and get good results. Lots of companies want to make searching their intranet more like searching the Internet — bringing Google.com-type search to their internal information stores. <a href="http://www.mercer.com/homepage.htm?siteLanguage=100">Mercer</a>, the global professional services company, has been dealing with this issue for a while. Their intranet, Mercer Link, has more than 350,000 webpages, and over 1.5 million docs in a content management system— lots of information for employees to search through as they work on projects for clients. They're now using the <a href="http://google.com/gsa">Google Search Appliance</a> to give employees a more searchable intranet experience, so the docs and pages that were hidden or hard to find are now easier to track down fast. Mercer's enterprise search architect Haroon Suleman, along with AMR Research's Jim Murphy, will be sharing the company's search story in a <a href="https://googleonline.webex.com/mw0305l/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=googleonline&service=6&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgoogleonline.webex.com%2Fec0600l%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26confViewID%3D531993315%26siteurl%3Dgoogleonline%26%26%26">special webinar</a> aimed at enterprises, "Search: A Vital Element to a Content Strategy," this Thursday, October 8 at 11 a.m. PDT. You can register and learn more about the conversation here — hope you can join.<div> Posted by Vijay Koduri, Google Enterprise Search team</div>

Making intranets more like the Internet with enterprise search

Employees at big companies often have mountains of information available to do their jobs — information that lives (and hides!) in various a...

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What is a browser?

I've been trying to explain to my mom for months what a web browser is, with little luck. After a few rounds of failed attempts, I grew curious about people's general understanding of web browsers. So I decided to conduct a highly-scientific (read: not scientific at all) survey of my friends and got the following results: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh788wGCnw0HNOsQwcGeBMDp4YSRrAd8CATCuRDNqYtXWHUZ9fGY9TV_hElLpMHdwa5onoOU6j34K1ydWVlrq4C-nyOFoDs4H6uxN21TcqiF3UkXec2axsyDYBhS1k8bNJsdbXPWWD5rueG/s1600-h/graphs3.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389526490029738098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh788wGCnw0HNOsQwcGeBMDp4YSRrAd8CATCuRDNqYtXWHUZ9fGY9TV_hElLpMHdwa5onoOU6j34K1ydWVlrq4C-nyOFoDs4H6uxN21TcqiF3UkXec2axsyDYBhS1k8bNJsdbXPWWD5rueG/" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 550px; height: 168px;" /></a> As it turns out, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ">my mom's not the only one</a> who is confused about web browsers — even though the browser is one of the most-used programs on computers. For my mom, my friends and everyone else who may be wondering about web browsers, I created a one minute video to help explain what they're all about about: <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BrXPcaRlBqo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&cc_load_policy=0&showinfo=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BrXPcaRlBqo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&cc_load_policy=0&showinfo=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> I've also created a simple site, <a href="http://www.whatbrowser.org/">WhatBrowser.org</a>, that gives even more information about browsers. On this site, you can see which web browser you're using, explore links to browser diagnostic tests and read some useful tips for getting the most out of your browser. Lots of our time each day is spent online, and every page on the web is experienced through the browser. Unfortunately, most people don't realize that there are many browsers out there, which differ on features like speed, security and extensibility. So, the next time you find yourself as the informal tech support for your family and friends, make sure to explain why their browser matters — and of course, what it is! Posted by Jason Toff, Associate Product Marketing Manager and son of Alla Toff

What is a browser?

I've been trying to explain to my mom for months what a web browser is, with little luck. After a few rounds of failed attempts, I grew ...

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Fall update on Google Health

We're still hard at work improving <a href="https://www.google.com/health">Google Health</a>, our online Personal Health Record (PHR). We've gotten valuable feedback from many of you who are importing data into Google Health from connected providers. We often hear that you want to import data from your health insurance plans, so we're working on just that. Today, at the <a href="http://www.health2con.com/sf2009/">Health 2.0 conference</a> in San Francisco, we're announcing the addition of two new health insurance companies to the Google Health platform: <a href="https://www.harvardpilgrim.org/portal/page?_pageid=213,277133&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL">Harvard Pilgrim Health Care</a> and the <a href="https://googlehealth.apwuhp.com/landing.aspx">American Postal Workers Union Health Plan (APWU Health Plan)</a>. The <a href="http://www.apwuhp.com/">APWU Health Plan</a>, the not-for-profit department of the American Postal Workers Union, now offers Google Health through their High Option PPO plan. Members get 18 months of data copied into their Google Health Account upon linking their member portal with Google Health and then automatic updates from that point on. <a href="https://www.harvardpilgrim.org/portal/page?_pageid=213,49561&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL">Harvard Pilgrim Health Care</a> serves more than one million members across Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and beyond and roughly 777,000 of their members who use the HMO, POS and PPO products can securely import their Harvard Pilgrim health history into Google Health. This includes prescription data used in the last year and any records on illnesses, conditions, procedures and immunizations dating back to 2006. Once a member links his health plan portal account with Google Health, his data will be automatically updated when a new claim is generated by a physician. With these new additions and <a href="https://www.bluecrossma.com/GoogleHealth/?activity=enroll&source=google">Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA</a>, which joined in December of 2008, we now have three health insurance plans that are connected to Google Health and actively promoting it as a PHR option to their members. We'll be studying how useful this data is to our users, as we've learned that <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/listening-to-google-health-users.html">some data is not as useful as others</a>. We're also working with companies that offer unique "convenience" services, such as secure email and video consultations with doctors. One example is a company called <a href="https://www.mdlivecare.com/">MDLiveCare</a>, a telehealth provider now available in the Google Health online services directory. MDLiveCare is helping to empower patients by sending the complete doctor's clinical note to Google Health from any consultation a patient has with their network of oncall board certified doctors and licensed mental health therapists. <a href="http://hellohealth.com/">Hello Health</a> is another example of a company that facilitates connecting with a doctor online and is launching with Google Health today. Also, in case you missed our updates, here are some <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/whatsnew.html">improvements</a> we worked on over the summer: <ul><li>File Upload: Still dealing with paper files at home? You can now upload files you have scanned or have on your computer, such as test results you previously received in the mail. Each file you upload can be anywhere from 4MB to 100MB. Start by completing and uploading an <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/plan-ahead-document-and-share-your.html">advance directive</a>. </li><li>Insurance Information: You can now store all of your health insurance information in your Google Health profile, including your plan name, plan ID, group number, subscriber and policy ID and member phone number. </li><li>Graphing: Keep track of your test results visually to see how key numbers progress over time. If you have more than one cholesterol lab result saved in your profile, you can view these results over time in a graph and track your progress. </li></ul>Keep tuning in to find out what's in store for Google Health in 2010. And keep the <a href="http://productideas.appspot.com/#16/e=2684d">feedback</a> coming. We're still learning a lot from all of you. Posted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager

Fall update on Google Health

We're still hard at work improving Google Health , our online Personal Health Record (PHR). We've gotten valuable feedback from many...

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Google PowerMeter's first device partner

Today, we're very excited to announce we have secured our first official device partner. (That means having a smart meter installed by your utility is no longer a prerequisite for using Google PowerMeter!) For the last several months, a few hundred Google employees have been testing a number of in-home electricity monitoring devices. Those of us lucky enough to have one of these devices installed in our homes experienced first-hand how access to high-resolution <a href="http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/smart-metering-report.pdf">energy use information drives meaningful behavior change</a> (PDF). So we set out to make that data easier for everyone to access and understand by sending the collected data to our <a href="http://www.google.org/powermeter">Google PowerMeter</a> software. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeR6niGdSyrRLq7RYuGVBmUNQadqKK9nvROUWEwc4XKQhV5bilL-6KlGC4vseYeN7HTzTRzGOiJS1UqxAONN0X-pNZ0heZ9XZ967V9dl2wozxuJehjQ5ekXKC-ICdh-GzNZIrKv8J5u9rV/s1600-h/green1.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389252974829879858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeR6niGdSyrRLq7RYuGVBmUNQadqKK9nvROUWEwc4XKQhV5bilL-6KlGC4vseYeN7HTzTRzGOiJS1UqxAONN0X-pNZ0heZ9XZ967V9dl2wozxuJehjQ5ekXKC-ICdh-GzNZIrKv8J5u9rV/s200/green1.png" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 97px; height: 200px;" /></a> The TED 5000 from Energy Inc. is an energy monitor that measures electricity usage in real-time (TED stands for "<a href="http://www.theenergydetective.com/index.html">The Energy Detective</a>"). As of today, we're pleased to announce that anyone in North America can <a href="http://www.theenergydetective.com/ted-5000-overview.html">purchase and install the TED 5000</a> and see personal home energy data using our free software tool, Google PowerMeter, from anywhere you can access the web including through <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/06/snack-time-with-new-igoogle-for-android.html">iGoogle for mobile phones</a>. (If you already have a TED 5000, you can download a free <a href="http://www.theenergydetective.com/ted-5000-firmware-upgrade.html">firmware upgrade</a> to enable this functionality.) Combined with Google PowerMeter, the TED 5000 device can help you understand your electricity usage to save energy and money. Energy Inc. is just our first device partner and if you are working for a company that manufactures energy monitors, we'd like to <a href="https://services.google.com/fb/forms/powerreaderdevice/">hear from you</a>. Stay tuned for more! Posted by Tom Sly, New Business Development & Charles Spirakis, Software Engineer

Google PowerMeter's first device partner

Today, we're very excited to announce we have secured our first official device partner. (That means having a smart meter installed by y...

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