What happens when a well-known academic medical center teams up with an even better known organization, this one in e-technology, in an effort to put patients in charge of their own health information?

Up to 10,000 U.S. patients may soon find out. And this particular initiative is just one more example of a big-business player moving into the healthcare arena.

The Cleveland Clinic this week said it would collaborate with Internet-search giant Google (Mountain View, California) to pilot a new healthcare offering not yet available to the public.

According to the clinic, more than 100,000 patients already use its electronic personal health record (PHR) system, the eCleveland Clinic MyChart. The pilot, an invitation-only opportunity offered to a group of Cleveland Clinic PHR users, plans to enroll between 1,500 and 10,000 patients. It will test secure exchange of patient medical record data such as prescriptions, conditions and allergies between their Cleveland Clinic PHR to a secure Google profile in a live clinical delivery setting.

The ultimate goal of the model is to give patients the ability to interact with multiple physicians, healthcare service providers and pharmacies, Google said.

"Patients are more proactively managing their own healthcare information," said C. Martin Harris, MD, chief information officer at the clinic. "At Cleveland Clinic, we strive to participate in and help to advance the national dialogue around a more efficient and effective national healthcare system. Utilizing Cleveland Clinic's PHR expertise, this collaboration is intended to help Google test features and services that will ultimately allow all Americans (as patients) to direct the exchange of their medical information between their various providers without compromising their privacy."

The pilot will eventually extend Cleveland Clinic's online patient services to a broader audience while enabling the portability of patient data so patients can take their data with them wherever they go — even outside the Cleveland Clinic Health System, the company said.

The electronic health record business has become an increasingly popular expansion opportunity for information technology companies. Last fall, for example, Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) entered the arena with the launch of its consumer health platform HealthVault.

According to a New York Times article, Google has been working to develop a product offering in the consumer health information sector for about 18 months.

"We believe patients should be able to easily access and manage their own health information," said Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience for Google. "We chose Cleveland Clinic as one of the first partners to pilot our new health offering because as a provider, they already empower their patients by giving them online tools that help them manage their medical records online and coordinate care with their doctors."

By integrating with the Google platform, the clinic said it is helping create national access to electronic medical records at no cost to the user or provider.

"The partnership with Google is an example of true innovation in healthcare which brings value to patients and providers," said Delos Cosgrove, MD, president/CEO of Cleveland Clinic, and a member of the Google Health Advisory Council. "As the volume of medical information available to patients increases, it becomes more important for doctors and patients to use this information in a way that empowers the patient to be more collaborative with their care providers."

In another HIT collaboration, RemedyMD (Salt Lake City), a developer of predictive informatics, said it has signed an agreement with Dell (Round Rock, Texas) to deliver integrated solutions to physicians, researchers, and institutions involved in information-based medicine.

RemedyMD's Investigate software suite, which enables clinical and translational research institutions to capture, integrate, and aggregate all the data necessary to deliver better research results, will be available on Dell technology. RemedyMD's eHealth solutions, including specialty-specific electronic health records bundled with practice management solutions, enable physicians to make better decisions that lead to better outcomes.

"Investigate encompasses everything researchers need to improve clinical outcomes. It consists of applications, disease-specific data, and a variety of tools that improve researcher productivity," said Gary Kennedy, CEO of RemedyMD. "Their emphasis on healthcare and life science makes Dell a perfect solutions platform for our revolutionary products."

James Coffin, Dell's VP of healthcare and life sciences, said, "Dell is committed to delivering technology that improves the quality and efficiency of patient care. RemedyMD has the same mission. With a RemedyMD solution built on Dell technology, healthcare and research professionals are equipped to make real and meaningful improvements in patient outcomes."