Microsoft offers online health records.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis - Www.healthvault.com

Microsoft wants to help patients manage their own health care online. It is entering the consumer healthcare market and plans to offer free personal health records that can be accessed and managed online.

Microsoft announced its HealthVault (www.healthvault.com) project in October, although the tech giant has spent two years building the team, partners, and the technology involved. The project consists of a personal health record and Internet searches tailored for health queries.

According to The New York Times, organizations that have signed up for HealthVault projects include the American Heart Association, Johnson & Johnson LifeScan, NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital, the Mayo Clinic, and MedStar Health, a network of seven hospitals in the BaltimoreWashington region.

The partnerships are integral; Microsoft's plan is for individuals to allow doctors, clinics, and hospitals to submit information such as prescription, blood pressure, and cholesterol data online, to be placed in the patient's private HealthVault account.

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According to the Times, New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, for example, plans to start a pilot project to enable some kinds of patient data, such as EKGs, to be automatically sent to a person's account. The Times also reported that Microsoft is working with the American Heart Association (AHA) to develop an online tool for managing...