Opening the Vault

Microsoft is now offering personal health records on the web, via HealthVault. We've provided a Community Link to the New York Times article that covers this development thoroughly. You can also check out Microsoft's press release on HealthVault at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-04HealthVaultPR.mspx

Microsoft has developed an impressive stable of partners that are participating and contributing to the HealthVault platform, including: ActiveHealth Management; Allscripts; American Diabetes Association; American Heart Association and American Stroke Association; American Lung Association; Aperion Companies; CapMed, a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies Inc.; Claricode; Diabetes Prevention Source (DPS); Diet.com; Eclipsys Corp.; HealthCentral Network Inc.; HealthMedia Inc.; Healthphone Solutions Ltd.; Healthways; Healthy Circles LLC; Home Diagnostics Inc.; iMedica Corp.; Kryptiq Corp.; LifeScan Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company; LiveHealthier; Matria Healthcare Inc.; Medem Inc.; MedHelp; Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE); Medifast Inc.; MEDSEEK; Medstar Health; Microlife USA Inc.; NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; NexCura, a Thomson Healthcare Business; NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc.; NoMoreClipboard.com; OMRON Healthcare Inc.; Peaksware LLC; Physicians Wellness Network; Podfitness; Polar; PureWellness; Sound Health Solutions Inc.; StayWell, a MediMedia company; Texas Instruments Inc.; US Wellness Inc.; Vital Data Technology; Whole Health Management; and WorldDoc Inc.

But the partnerships that will really count towards success of HealthVault in simplifying and reducing the paperwork and business of healthcare, involve the other stakeholders in the delivery of healthcare: patients, providers and plans. For example, the New York Times reported that "at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Aurelia Boyer, the chief information officer, explained that the hospital was committed to doing whatever it can to help patients manage their own health care. After an initial discussion with Microsoft, the hospital has pledged to start a pilot project to enable some kinds of patient data — EKGs, perhaps — to be automatically sent to a person’s HealthVault account. If a patient chooses to have a Microsoft personal health record, Ms. Boyer said, 'we want to support them.' The data exchange, she added, will require some software tweaking by the hospital’s technical staff. 'We’ll pilot a few things and see how it goes,' Ms. Boyer said."

It will take hospitals, physicians, and health plans to partner in the HealthVault initiative in large numbers, in the way the New York-Presbyterian has, in order for business to truly grow more seamless. 

Of course, HealthVault is a proprietary initiative, and there are competitors pursuing similar agendas. Then there are many RHIO  (Regional Health Information Organizations) initiatives around the country that attempt to serve as a universal lynchpin, and pull together all the categories of transactions.

Here's hoping somebody succeeds, sometime soon.