Last month, I wrote an article on the brewing battle between Microsoft and Google to create the de facto portal for your online personal health records (PHR). It seemed that Microsoft’s HealthVault may have had the edge with its earlier deployment and collaboration with the Mayo Clinic.

In a move to equalize the playing field, CNN recently reported that Google Health will work with the Cleveland Clinic to store records of several thousand patient volunteers. Google has been relatively silent about its unreleased project, but I assume it will primarily serve as a portable repository of personal medical information, including demographic data, past medical and surgical histories, current medications, and allergies. It is reasonable to speculate that the web service would also store select test results and discharge summaries from participating hospitals. I doubt that the excruciating details of progress notes or consultations will appear in the near future.

Details about the Google Health project are largely unavailable to the public, but it is clear that both Google and the Clinic have potential to reap great benefits from this symbiotic relationship. Google will instantly acquire a user base in the thousands, while drawing consumers to its brand of products. More importantly, Google would create a working hospital-web service model to market to other health care centers. Hospitals are the natural gold mines of medical records. The web service (e.g., HealthVault or Google Health) that more quickly gains broad acceptance by hospitals will likely dominate the market. The exorbitant costs to develop and maintain an EMR (electronic medical record) infrastructure may prohibit interested hospitals from integrating with multiple web services; that is, it may have to choose one or the other, likely the more popular or widely accepted web service. There is a reason why Windows dominates the desktop OS market (hint: it is not for technological superiority).

As for the Cleveland Clinic, the project benefits the hospital by establishing itself as a leader in health care technology. The association with Google will also boost brand recognition for the Clinic. This is important in a highly competitive health care market where recognition and prestige have tangible effects on patients’ decisions and donors’ pocketbooks.

As I mentioned in my earlier article, there are reasonable privacy concerns with either Google or Microsoft having access to so much personal information. But, the general public has spoken with its money clicks: These are among the most popular web companies in the world. So who’s next in the line-up of PHR marriages … Revolution Health (created by AOL’s co-founder Steve Case) and Johns Hopkins?