This Blood Test Is Brought to You by

Very good points made here relative to privacy issues...with the Adsense ads reading the text contained in the chart to display a related ad? "I wonder what they will think about having stent ads appear next to the CT scans of their hearts"....BD

As we consider the entry by Google and Microsoft into the medical records business, a vision of where this may all be going is presented by a San Francisco startup called Practice Fusion.

The company’s concept: Give doctors a free service that will automate their offices — both administrative functions, like appointments, and patient medical records. The catch: The software displays advertising aimed at the doctors and their staff.
Here is where it really gets dicey: The ads shown are related to the content of the medical records. So when the doctor reviews your cholesterol test results, he may see an ad for Lipitor.
Ryan Howard, the chief executive of Practice Fusion, said it can do this without violating the privacy of patients. Its advertising system doesn’t collect the names or other personally identifiable information of patients, he said.
If people thought that having Blockbuster ads featuring their photos on Facebook was intrusive, I wonder what they will think about having stent ads appear next to the CT scans of their hearts.