Quintiles is promoting the benefits of its MediGuard healthcare information management system to former users of the now defunct Google Health. Quintiles' digital health unit was launched earlier this week with the aim of better supporting its MediGuard and ClinicalResearch online patient communities.
The new service allows users to securely store information about their own medicine use in order to identify any possible dangerous drug interactions and safety alerts, as well as sharing feedback with fellow patients on side effects and similar issues.
An open invitation to join MediGuard has been extended to patients who used Google Health prior to its January 1st 2012 discontinuation, with Google stating that the service had failed to achieve its targets in terms of scale.
David Coman, senior vice-president at Quintiles and head of the digital patient unit, said MediGuard, with its 2.5 million members, is successfully executing Google's intended model, offering free and easy-to-use information on patient safety issues.
Mr Coman said: "Google Health was a brilliant concept, but in order for online patient services to work, there must be a clear benefit to patients who enroll in them."