Drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp., owner of local business Longs Drug Stores, expanded an online medical records deal with giant Google Inc.
Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS (NYSE: CVS) has worked with Mountain View’s Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) on such health records since May 2008 when the Google Health program started.
This expansion lets customers of CVS pharmacies download prescription information and history into their online Google medical records.
The idea behind Google’s medical record project and other such programs is to make it easier for pharmacists, doctors and patients themselves to keep track of information that was previously stored (mostly still in traditional, arcane folders in doctor’s offices) in many places.
Typically, Google has pushed for the democratization of such medical records, in keeping with its “open source” philosophy in many other areas, such as public domain book, painting and photograph publishing.
“Google Health puts you in charge of your health information,” the company says on its web site, adding that “you always control how it’s used.”
CVS, which bought Longs last year after fending off rival Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG), has about 6,900 stores.
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