GARDEN CITY, NY – When Google announced plans in late February to collaborate with Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic on a pilot program to make medical records available online, the news didn’t go unnoticed on New York’s Long Island.

A group of doctors there have been working on just such a program for several years.

Doctations, Inc. last year unveiled DocPatient.com, a Website designed to bring healthcare providers, their patients and service providers together in a secure environment to enter and share information. The five-year-old company aims to be the antithesis of the EMR, offering all services on an outsourced basis through a series of Web browsers.

“With this system, all the data is online,” said Louis Cornacchia III, MD, the company’s president and CEO.

Cornacchia feels that most of the functions of the traditional EMR can be outsourced, including transcription, scheduling and billing. By connecting to a Web-based infrastructure – what he calls a “Web-Integrated Healthcare Community” – doctors can focus on the sharing of medical data with their patients.

Basic services are provided free for patients, and there’s a $9.95-per-year charge for add-ons, including fax-in capability and document sharing. For physicians, the basic fee is $35 per month, with add-ons that can boost that amount to $50.