New PHR Platforms: Could They Help Promote Wellness Applications?

Last week's launch of Google Health has officially drawn the battle lines around Personal Health Record (PHR) platforms. Just today, Microsoft responded by increasing the size of BeWell prize fund to promote applications for HealthVault platform.

What is all this talk about platforms and why it matters?

I published a detailed analysis of PHR platform issues on my main blog (Google Health: Impressive Platform, Long and Hard Slog Ahead) and here I would like to consider what kind of applications they might help support, especially in prevention and wellness.

Microsoft appears to be a few steps with driving innovation

Back in February, Microsoft announced BeWell fund to identify the best PHR application ideas and support them with funding. Interestingly enough, at least 3 out of 6 solicited categories are related to prevention and welless. Here are the topics:

TRACK 1: Primary Prevention Applications

Proposals targeting primary prevention could help people and caregivers create and maintain strategies that prevent or delay onset of disease by reinforcing healthy lifestyle factors and addressing modifiable risk factors such as hypertension and weight.

TRACK 2: Secondary Prevention Applications 

The identification of major modifiable risk factors (such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, smoking, obesity and inactivity) is a prerequisite to the implementation of preventative interventions — known as secondary prevention. Proposals in this category could help people and their caregivers measure things such as blood pressure, lipid profile components (LDL and HDL cholesterol and triglycerides), diet and nutrition, weight, smoking, and activity level to create the optimal plan to prevent or delay morbidity and acute care.

TRACK 3: Acute Care Applications 

Certain conditions require immediate diagnosis and treatment, whether at the doctor’s office or in an urgent care setting. Proposals targeting acute care scenarios might track progress, improve communication and share data between the silos in the healthcare system, providing caregivers with a longitudinal view of a patient’s health history that ultimately may lead to superior outcomes.

TRACK 4: Juvenile Disease Management Applications

Health conditions in children often require specialized detection, diagnosis and treatment. Parents typically become eager partners in the plan of care, and seek information specifically related to their child’s condition. Proposals focusing on juvenile disease management might provide age-appropriate tools to help children, parents and caregivers understand and manage their conditions.

TRACK 5: Women’s Health Management Applications

Women’s health issues can be complex and are often influenced by biopsychosocial and environmental factors. Proposals targeting this track might choose to create online tools or services that help manage health within the context of lifestyle and family.

TRACK 6: Community and Social Health Applications

Patients and caregivers dealing with illness or people interested in wellness are increasingly sharing information and support with each other through various Web-based social applications. Proposals targeting this category might include applications for health in areas such as collaboration, communication and the use of social relationships to improve care.

Today, Microsoft increased the fund size from $3M to $4.5M and announced an all-star panel of judges.

Will prevention and wellness applications, based on PHR platforms become a success? Certainly they have the potential to focus on fulfilling happiness needs, rather than merely provide another health record locker. But whether health record storage can make a difference for such applications remains to be seen.

If successful, PHR platforms could have a disruptive effect on healthcare industry and spur a lot of innovation and imitation.