A Dubious Diagnosis: Will New Yorkers Really Be Able To See Their Health History Online?

The 19.5 million residents of New York State will soon have access to heaps of their own health data — the results of every blood test, the details on every prescription — courtesy of a groundbreaking web portal that'll make obtaining medical records as easy as online banking. At least that's the promise of a state-backed initiative that hopes to set a precedent across the country.

Called "The Patient Portal for New Yorkers," the venture marks the first time a US state has tried to share comprehensive, digitized medical data, provided by doctors and hospitals, with patients. It's also an ambitious attempt to succeed where private efforts have largely failed: Google, for instance, last year shut down its own patient portal, Google Health, after the venture didn't gain traction with users.

"We're arguably the most advanced state in the country working on this," Paul Wilder, the vice president of product management at the New York eHealth Collaborative, a nonprofit working in conjunction with the New York State Department of Health on the venture, told The Verge. "For patients, the applications here are going to be huge."