“When a patient gets a referral from one doctor to another, it is really that patient who acts as an information transporter, telling the new doctor his or her medical history, medication use, and in some cases actually transferring paper records,” he said.
HealthVault tries to standardize, stabilize, and formalize that process, and Mr. Scriban contends that this will reduce errors, prevent loss of important information, eliminate redundancy, and give physicians a fuller picture of their patients' health. He added that HealthVault is being designed to interface with many different electronic health records systems. He said that he hopes that as more patients create PHRs, more doctors will see the ultimate value in interconnectivity.
Microsoft is primarily focused on enabling people to manage their health information, and less engaged in providing self-care tools, something that Google is pursuing, Mr. Scriban said.
Both Google and Microsoft are actively engaged in lining up partners across the health care landscape, including insurers and managed care plans, information service providers, medical organizations, and patient advocacy groups.
Microsoft recently partnered with Kaiser Permanente, an integrated health plan with more than 8 million members, to test the transfer of data from Kaiser's personal health record into HealthVault. The pilot project, launched last month, is open to Kaiser's 159,000 employees. The idea is to combine the clinical data entered by Kaiser physicians, which are available in the Kaiser personal health record, with patient-entered health information and clinical information from providers outside of the Kaiser system. “Providing new ways to manage their health online is one more way we can engage consumers in their care,” Anna-Lisa Silvestre, vice president of online services at Kaiser Permanente, said in a statement. “We believe that Microsoft HealthVault will be a valuable supplement to our expanding set of online features.”
Kaiser officials plan to re-evaluate the pilot later in the year before expanding it to Kaiser members.
HealthVault and Google Health aim to make consumers agents of change. ©2008 Microsoft Corporation/Google Health