Health and Marketing

On Wednesday March 12th, TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld broke a story about the health website Healthline and it's new announced partnership with Aetna (a health insurance company, that covers Columbia students as well). Putting health information online for users to access and share with others is not a news concept. Both Microsoft and Google have launched in the past year health platforms. The difference is while Microsoft and Google launched by partnering with providers (Microsoft with NY Presbyterian and Google with the Cleveland Clinic), Healthline is partnering with a payer. While Microsoft and Google will need to collect information from the providers and get permission from each patients to be part of the new system, Healthline already will have access to all of Aetna's online medical information (as long as it follows the restrictions set out by HIPPA). However, no matter how they get the information the real questions is how are they going to make a profit from it? And the answer, should be, marketing.

On February 28th, the Associated Press quoted Google's CEO Eirc Schmidt saying that "Google will not use advertising to support its new internet health services,". If that is the case, how are they going to make any profit. I would much more prefer them to advertise to me then for Google to find another way to exploit my personal information. We should be used to it already. Google's computers read every email I send and receive by Gmail and then advertise relative information on the side. Google looks at every search I do and gives me a few "recommended" sites I should check out as well. Facebook's computers look through my profile and adversities things I might be interested in. So what is so different with health information? We already put our lives on line for all to see through facebook, MySpace, youtube and blogs, why should I care that a computer is reading my health files as well and suggesting certain content based on that. The only real privacy concern I can see is the giving out of information to third parties, and under HIPPA it makes it complicated. But marketing by a computer based on my health file I say go ahead.