Google, Microsoft executives criticize Obama's e-health records plan

Top executives at Google and Microsoft sharply questioned the structure of the Obama administration's $20 billion health information technology plan at a meeting of a presidential technology council on Thursday. Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer of Google, told top health technology officials at a meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that the current national health IT system planned by the administration will result in hospitals and doctors using an outdated system of databases in what is becoming an increasingly Web-focused world. The approach will stifle innovation, he said, and ensures medical professionals continue to use existing outmoded medical databases, many of which are copyrighted and cannot be duplicated. Google and Microsoft have developed Web-based personal health record software products, called Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. Schmidt told the council that, like the Google and Microsoft applications, the national health IT system should be based on Web records that patients can control.