Microsoft recently launched the beta of HealthVault, a free online service for consumers that combines three key services into one hub. While Microsoft is generally not known for making a lasting impression in any specific vertical market, this solution really leverages some of their strengths. Their tools, size and neutrality allows them to integrate with virtually any organization in the healthcare space, presumably without significant competitive issues.
There are three core solutions:
- Health Information Search Tools. While you can get decent healthcare content from dozens of sites, HealthVault supplements with their own content, Wiki content, and most importantly you can store important results in your HealthVault scrapbook.
- Data Discovery and Controlled Sharing. This is essentially an Electronic or Personal Medical Record (EMR/PMR) and includes some web services that allow a consumer or other organization to push information to, or pull data from, your own data store. This includes clinical systems as well as medical device and consumer hardware and software solutions such as monitors, meters, fitness devices, etc. Unfortunately it appears that the "data" is simply a store of documents.
- Optimized Security and Privacy. No solution that stores private health information could ever get off the ground without it, and Microsoft's "health privacy commitments" reflect both the social ("what are you going to do with my data?") and regulatory (HIPAA) requirements well.
This is an extremely ambitious effort but Microsoft's "simply store the data securely" strategy seems like a great start with broad appeal. Getting consumers to trust it will be one big challenge, and getting the physicians, payers, healthcare software companies, device manufactures, etc., will be another. Sign up and give it a try. [Microsoft HealthVault]
