Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt introduced Google Health at a healthcare conference in Florida last week. The U.S. health care system has an expensive and old-fashioned record keeping system, as an estimated 90 percent of the medical records of patients are kept in cabinets in the doctors’ offices.

The first pilot project of Google, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic (which U.S. News & World Report ranked as the fourth-best hospital in the country), began on Feb. 18. The project involves 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who accepted to have their personal health information transferred so that it can be retrieved through Google’s new service.

Schmidt said last week that the company has also signed deals with a wide array of hospitals and companies including medical tester Quest Diagnostics Inc, health insurer Aetna Inc, Walgreens and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pharmacies.

Google’s brand new service features health profiles for each volunteer where the person will be able to store information about diseases, allergies, prescriptions, drugs used and any other facts regarding his or her medical history. Each profile will be protected by a password, which will be also required in order to use other services, such as email or personalized search tools.

Google’s initiative was criticized by many people because of concerns related to the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the powerful Internet company. But Google sees its expansion into health records management as a natural and logical step, taking into account that its popular search engine is already processing millions of requests from users trying to find out more information about all kinds of health problems and recommended treatments.

Google decided to develop the new health service after noticing that millions of people from all around the world use the search engine to find information about illnesses and medical treatments. This way, it foresaw a huge opportunity to create a new advertising space.

However, there are strong concerns about storing health information online. This means that your health records are as safe as the least safe party which accesses them, not very reassuring. Privacy groups also worry that companies might not want to employ someone with a genetic disorder, or insurance companies could be looking to eliminate from coverage those at risk for health problems.