Mayo Clinic, Microsoft deepen health record ties
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A screenshot of the Mayo Clinic Health Manager, which uses Microsoft's HealthVault technology.
(Credit: Microsoft)The Mayo Clinic on Tuesday said it will build a personal health record service based on Microsoft's HealthVault technology.
The product, Mayo Clinic Health Manager, will initially focus on general pediatric and adult health issues, immunization records, pregnancy, and asthma. In the coming months, the clinic will add tools to help manage chronic conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
"Mayo Clinic Health Manager can help patients share information more easily with their doctors and manage their own health better between office visits," said Mayo Clinic doctor Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel, who also serves as medical director of Mayo Clinic Global Products and Services.
People don't need to be a patient of the clinic to use the new tool, Microsoft said. Microsoft's HealthVault is designed to allow people to store many different kinds of health records, including digital information from its partners, data from in-home medical devices, as well as information entered directly by the patient.
Although the effort is 18 months years old, Microsoft is just getting off the ground, in terms of getting hospitals and doctors signed up. Among its recent deals is one with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
In addition to the battle to get access to the data it needs, HealthVault finds itself competing against rival services, including Google Health, as well as personal health records offered by insurance plans and others.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Such as if a third party company comes to Google and wants to know X number of people out of Y plan are suffering from Z symptoms and what means of insurance they carry, how it's paid, etc.
Microsoft never let any laws get in the way of breaking them before. I fully trust Microsoft will continue to do as they please with health records as they have with customer databases in the past.
Care to cite your FUD?
I bet if you look through all the legal fine print you'll find no one is responsible for data loss or publicity in the event of a "software breach". Trust me, they have an "out". They have to - first off, software is written by people who by definition are imperfect themselves - mistakes happen. Secondly, it's not like M$ has had a great track record regarding security of any of their products to begin with. I may trust Google enough to do web searches through them, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to hand over my medical records to them.
The idea is virtuous - but the implementation scares the daylights out of me.
- by The_happy_switcher April 21, 2009 11:36 AM PDT
- "I'm not sure I really want my medical records (I have none, ironically as I don't get sick or injured) hosted by any big computer company including Microsoft" For once I agree with. Now I will probably win the lottery, too.
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- by monkeyfun14 April 21, 2009 1:42 PM PDT
- Way to take things out of context
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- by Vegaman_Dan April 21, 2009 2:13 PM PDT
- @AppleRocks1663:
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- by SlimGem April 21, 2009 5:43 PM PDT
- Vegaman_Dan,
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- by Dalkorian April 22, 2009 10:04 AM PDT
- There is Dan's more virtuous nature showing through again - offering to feed the trolls. Isn't that nice? Even trolls need to eat, you know!
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(12 Comments)Make sure when you quote someone that you quote them accurately. You have an incomplete quote there which may unintentionally (or intentionally) lead to misundertanding the comment.
I would say AppleRocks1963 quoted you as accurately as he intended to.
You apparently missed his little jab at MicroSoft. I understood it quite clearly.