The whole truth?
Health IT vendor Practice Fusion grabbed headlines a couple of weeks ago with the news, first reported March 16 in the San Francisco Chronicle, that it would offer a free EMR to physician practices, thanks to a “deal” with Google.
Publications nationwide jumped on this story, which some interpreted as Google’s long-anticipated entry into the world of healthcare. As of this morning, Practice Fusion’s own Web site lists no less than 17 instances of media coverage the company has received since then, including my story in Digital HealthCare & Productivity last week.
Thanks to the publication schedule, my story didn’t appear until March 20, which gave me time to put in a call to Google and get spokesman Brandon McCormick to say, “This shouldn’t be interpreted as a product move on Google’s part.”
Further, an e-mailed official statement from Google read as following: “Practice Fusion has recently joined Google’s AdSense program to place ads on their Web pages. AdSense helps hundreds of thousands of publishers effectively monetize online content in just about every vertical category that exists on the Web. Practice Fusion’s participation in our AdSense program is not exclusive and should not be read as an indication of any product plans by Google.”
Ouch.
That makes it sound like Practice Fusion’s invocation of the G word was little more than a publicity stunt. I guess it worked, since so many publications—the Wall Street Journal included—took the bait.
The news also lit up the blogosphere.
Fred Trotter’s post called the news “snake oil” and “bunk”—and that was just in his headline.
A new blog called e-CareManagement took issue with the business model and raised the obvious privacy concerns about an ad-supported EMR. That blog’s writer, Vince Kuraitis, e-mailed me twice last week.
The first message questoned both Practice Fusion’s ethics and the wisdom of publicizing the supposed business connection to Google. The second message, sent exactly nine minutes later, said the following:
…one more thing that doesn’t fit…
Google AdSense revenue is peanuts, see, e.g.,
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/a_review_of_my_.htmlcertainly not enough to sustain an EHR.
On the other hand, you would think that PF would have negotiated a special
click thru rate with AdSense knowing that doctor eyeballs poised on an EHR
at the point of care would be worth a lot more that an average eyeball.….which would suggest that indeed there is a special deal with Google
here….…but which Google now denies ????
This thing stinks.
I don’t know if anything stinks or not, but I can vouch for the ad revenue being peanuts. Google doesn’t cut a check unless you have at least $100 in your account. I’ve had AdSense ads on this site since July 2005, and I haven’t seen a dime yet. But I never expected to make a profit from blogging.
On the other hand, Practice Fusion finally updated its blog on Tuesday, the first post since March 6. Perhaps the phones were ringing off the hook there for the past three weeks?
Stay tuned to this story and to my blog. I have at least two more posts in me, and hopefully I’ll have them up in the next day or two.
Neil, I am sure that Practice Fusion is enjoying the sunlight, but they are realizing that it is pretty hot – especially if you have an Icarian business model. Multiple people have commented on this, including myself the day it was announced (http://scottshreeve.blogspot.com/2007/03/adware-within-healthcare-software-free.html), Fred Trotter expose (he loves that stuff), and multiple others. Perhaps Practice Fusion is of the “any news is good news” philosophy. Or perhaps they just wanted to increase their search ratings via the media storm they created with by invoking the G-word.
Neil, What up? Enjoyed your comments. I am sure that Practice Fusion is enjoying their time in the sun, but probably didn’t anticipate that it would be so hot. I think the additional scrutiny does not bode well for their Icarian business model, particular when they cloud their own credibility with their less then truthful announcement invoking the G-word. I wrote about this the day I heard about it, followed by Fred, and several others. This is really the strength of the web and the blogging which shines the bright light of truth in the gray areas. Upon further reflection, perhaps Practice Fusion was just following the “any news is good news” mantra of VC based companies. Or perhaps, they were just trying to create a media storm that would improve their rankings in further searches?Hopeful, this misadventure won’t result in the wings coming off…
Hey Neil,I’m not sure how an EMR can use Adsense. The only people that could click on the links are the doctors that use the EMR. That is pretty close to a TOS violation if it’s not a violation completely. I guess if someone types in Flu then a bunch of links to people selling Flu products is ok, but would an advertiser really want to pay for that? I guess time will tell.I have to argue that google adsense isn’t always a bad deal. I can’t quit my day job, but I easily get a check every month from Google mostly from my EMR and HIPAA blog. EMR is a popular term that pays quite well. It did take a little work getting to that point.I love your blog. I can only aspire to be as professional as you. We can all have dreams right?