After two years spent building a team, technology, and the attached expertise, Microsoft announced HealthVault today in Washington. HealthVault is a web-based personal health record tracking data such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, surgical procedures, etc. Centralizing medical data for physician access alleviates problems in both personalized care and also insurance.
Microsoft does not expect a flood of users to immediately populate the site and is instead looking to existing healthcare institutions for help. Ideally patients will permit hospitals, doctors, and clinics to insert information into their HealthVault records. Early partners of HealthVault include the American Heart Association, Johnson & Johnson, the Mayo Clinic, and seven hospitals throughout the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.
The release of HealthVault coincides with struggles in the healthcare divisions of other large technology players. Healthcare executives involved in both Google and Cisco programs recently departed, while Intel's Dossia coalition is progressing much slower than Microsoft's initiative.
