Software giant Microsoft is looking to expand into a new area of business, and this time the company’s success won’t depend just on the success of its technology, but on the success of its policies and its ability to securely manage medical records and personal health information.
Microsoft HealthVault is both a platform and a service. For everyday users, HealthVault will serve both as an online library of health and medical information and as a repository for portentially-sensitive health information and medical records. The idea is that when users want to provide health information—say to a doctor, pharmacist, hospital, or other health care provider—they can grant specific access to information stored via HealthVault. The system is also designed to be accessible to devices like heart monitors and other diagnostic equipment, so health care providers can have constantly-updated access to an individual’s current health data. Users specifically permit access via invitation sent via email.
Microsoft hopes health care providers, medical software developers, insurance companies, and others will develop applications and devices that offer direct support for HealthVault. A number of partners—including the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Texas Instruments—have already announced their intentions to support the platform, and more than 40 applications and devices have already been announced for the HealthVault platform.
"People are concerned to find themselves at the center of the healthcare ecosystem today because they must navigate a complex web of disconnected interactions between providers, hospitals, insurance companies and even government agencies," said Microsoft’s corporate vice president of the Health Solutions Peter Neupert, in a statement. "Our focus is simple: to empower people to lead healthy lives."
Microsoft plans to support HealthVault using advertising revenue pulled in from the search features on the site, which ties into Windows Live Search. Microsoft is requiring advertisers protect any data transferred over the platform.
Nonetheless, HealthVault may face a steep uphill battle. So far, private physicians have yet to embrace electronic medical records in great numbers (sas many as 85 percent of physicians keep no electronic records of any kind), and insurance providers (which thrive on electronic records) haven’t yet signed on to Microsoft’s system. And, despite a clear privacy policy and promises of data security, storing medical records and health information online opens all manner of privacy concerns, ranging from data mining by employers, insurance companies, and others, to security breaches which could potentially see health information on millions of people suddenly "turned loose" in the world. Consumers may not embrace online access to their personal medical histories.
