Splash Web Effects

Google, in all it’s well-meaning splendor and ethos of not being evil, has decided to make a change in policy regarding unaccredited pharmacies. Hooray.

Another change Google’s dropped on the table however, is that it’s stance on drugs from accredited pharmacies from our friends to the north has shifted dramatically. New rules state that Canadian pharmacies will no longer be able to target consumers in the US, and that search results will be filtered.

For those of us embroiled in the healthcare debate, either side acknowledges that prescriptions for drugs in the US are often far too costly, and not covered, or not covered very well by current insurance. Even life-saving or medically necessary drugs come at a high cost, and without subsidization by our government, many people do without their medicine, opting to feed their families at the cost of their own health.

Enter Canadian Pharmacies, such as canadianpharmacymeds.com – which is an accredited pharmacy in Canada. Many customers of the pharmacy receive medicine at much lower prices than at non-subsidized us pharmacies, or where generics are unavailable. Due to these new rules however, it could become much harder to comparison-shop, or even find these legitimate pharmacies in order to receive cheaper medication from reputable sources.

The problem that is not currently being solved however, is cutting down on pharmacies that have bad reputations for sending out sugar pills, or are fake/scam sites. These places have little moral or legal obligation to skirt past any rules Google imposes, and so the only people hurt by this are law-abiding, policy-following and generally reputable sources of medication in Canada.

Hopefully, Google will see these issues with the policy change and reverse course, as this is one of the few avenues consumers have of leveling the playing field with regards to healthcare and the rising cost of prescriptions.

Medicine, as a rule, is a very closed-source system. Even as the burgeoning information age claims basic diagnosis with WebMD.com and a host of other medical information sites, real info is locked in tightly controlled mediums. Resistance fighters like Google use tactics like Google Scholar and Google Trends to map information researchers across the scientific spectrum can use to come up with real-time theories about health and security, but a serious tool that has been tapped in the web era has yet to be explored in the medical community.
Anonymous usage statistics are used by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and a host of other companies we know, and sometimes trust. Why not GlaxoSmithKline? Why not HP’s medical technology department?
Having our medical data available to these companies is a sensitive issue, one HIPPA aims to protect us from- but electing to share information is a hassle that many patients don’t take, or aren’t made aware of- holding hostage gigabytes of real-time data that could be used to report important information about drug side effects, interactions, rates of recovery and symptoms few patients even report.
Having, by default, anonymous usage data stored in a central repository, storing nothing personal along with the data, could lead to a serious boon for researchers. Understanding how different medicines interact with dietary patterns, other drugs, patients with accompanying disorders and genetic histories is too tempting to ignore.
Currently, the Obama administration is pushing to computerize all medical records, some say for this very reason. It’s an environmental, anti-bureaucratic decision that helps people to eliminate the endless shuffle of paper and reclaim many of the costs associated with medical billing- but the move has come under fire from conservatives looking for possible breaches of privacy. While true, the medical story of your life could be taken by ner-do-wells on the world wide web, the uses for such data are limited without your consent. Companies couldn’t use that data to screen you from employment without risking a major lawsuit. Creditors could not use that data for the same reason. The only people at risk to be taken advantage of stand to lose something due to political or business related reasons. While this information could affect the market negatively if say, a CEO’s heart problem surfaced, or an untimely reveal of a mental disorder might affect negotiations- but the lives saved, economic potential of more innovative drugs reaching the market, and genetic patterns being discovered before it’s too late might just be worth it.
Besides, there are ways around it- electing not to have your medical data stored online for instance, or even on the computer in the first place, might eliminate the complaints of all but the most hardcore libertarians.
In the end however, the nation’s medical records will eventually be computerized for one reason or another, and its only a matter of time then before the vast amount of data can be tapped in the name of progress.