It’s been a busy day, so only just getting a chance to write about Microsoft’s announcement of HealthVault. After seeing David Hamilton’s underwhelming review, I almost didn’t bother, but you knew that wasn’t going to happen. There are some who feel that Microsoft has beaten Google to the punch in getting a health solution to the market, but I believe that given an uncertain regulatory environment, access and ownership standards, and monetization models it is better to take your time.
So what is HealthVault?
HealthVault is an online storage place for your health information. It can store many different types of information, such as:
* Hospital and doctor’s visit records
* Immunization records
* Data from health and fitness devices you can connect to your computer
* Exercise statistics
* And many moreOne HealthVault account can contain the Health Records for many people. For example, you could have Health Records for yourself, your spouse, each of your children, elderly relatives whose care you manage, and even your pets.
Unlike others I am not that concerned about giving Microsoft my health information. The questions I have about are the rules behind online health records, ownership, insurance, etc. Another aspect of interest me is how the average consumer would interact with their health record and what they might use it for (I am certainly not the average consumer). Microsoft is certainly cognizant of the security aspects. You really have to jump through hoops to get logged in and you’re reminded at multiple points that Microsoft is very serious about privacy.
I was actually able to use HealthVault on Firefox, otherwise it would have been a non-starter.
From what it appears, the primary interaction with the system is will be via programs which are add on modules that enable functionality. HealthVault Connection Center imports health data from computer-connectable health and fitness devices and uploads the data to HealthVault. That’s actually kinda cool and a sign of things to come HealthVault Search enables you to just do that; find health information which you can store back with your profile. The language used would suggest that this is likely to be opened up to third parties such as the fairly impressive array of partners Microsoft seems to have on board.
For a detailed review of the site look no further than David Hamilton’s fabulous review. In the article he talks about what people would use a personalized health record for and what the utility would be. It could be just a personal information system that helps consumers keep track of their health information, any regimens, medications, weight, etc. On the other hand, it could hook up to hospital electronic medical records and provide a more complete picture. The latter has serious implications, especially since patients could misconstrue something. As noted in the article, you could delete or not provide your doctor with critical information if you manage your own records. How insurance fits into all this is another story.
So what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? It is an important step. Very imperfect, but you get the idea of what kind of service people want to offer. However, healthcare is a complex matter, with a highly interconnected ecosystem and very high liability. It will take a while for the whole situation to get fleshed out.
Further reading
David’s first post
Jon Udell
Healthcare IT guy
Microsoft, Google, and healthcare
Technorati Tags: Personal Health Records, Microsoft, HealthVault
2 Comments
Two kinds of comments from the people I talk to: Positive and Negative
1. Healthvault is a big joke — a company like Microsoft should not rush out with a product or service in such poor quality. It is half baked and not really usable at this time. The feeling for this announcement is only for Microsoft marketing purpose and shows the immaturity and weakness of Microsoft plan in dealing with consumer health care issue.
2. Healthvault brought a great vision — whatever you see in this beta release is the beginning of a grand vision. It is a great leadership played by Microsoft to bring in many software and hardware companies together to serve the goal: consumer empowerment. With the resource (including talent) that Microsoft possesses and gaining idea from public comments, they are going to create another great opportunity in health care domain.
OPHRAH Health
Two kinds of comments from the people I talk to: Positive and Negative
1. Healthvault is a big joke — a company like Microsoft should not rush out with a product or service in such poor quality. It is half baked and not really usable at this time. The feeling for this announcement is only for Microsoft marketing purpose and shows the immaturity and weakness of Microsoft plan in dealing with consumer health care issue.
2. Healthvault brought a great vision — whatever you see in this beta release is the beginning of a grand vision. It is a great leadership played by Microsoft to bring in many software and hardware companies together to serve the goal: consumer empowerment. With the resource (including talent) that Microsoft possesses and gaining idea from public comments, they are going to create another great opportunity in health care domain.
OPHRAH Health
3 Trackbacks
[...] Deepak Singh wrote a fantastic post today on “Your personal health: Redmonds vault for health information”Here’s ONLY a quick extractOne HealthVault account can contain the Health Records for many people. For example, you could have Health Records for yourself, your spouse, each of your children, elderly relatives whose care you manage, and even your pets. … [...]
[...] Update: The Gene Sherpa raises some very relevant points about something that has always troubled me, especially in the context of personal health records. [...]
[...] were so many discussions (Constructive Medicine; bbgm) about how to create an online site where we could store our medical records which means we [...]