Microsoft Rolls Out Online Health Records

Oct 05, 12:59 PM

Current Headlines: By Steve Lohr

Microsoft announced its drive into the consumer health care market Thursday, offering to store personal health records on the Web free while pursuing a partnership plan that borrowed from its successes in personal computer software.

The Microsoft service, called HealthVault, comes after two years spent building its team and technology. In recent months, Microsoft managers have met with many potential partners, including hospitals, disease-prevention organizations and health care companies.

The organizations that have signed up for HealthVault projects with Microsoft include the American Heart Association, LifeScan of Johnson & Johnson, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and MedStar Health, a network of seven hospitals in the Baltimore- Washington region.

The partnerships are a page from Microsoft's old playbook. Persuading other companies to build upon its technology, and then helping them do it, was a major reason why Windows became the dominant personal computer operating system.

"The value of what we're doing will go up rapidly as we get more partners," said Peter Neupert, the vice president in charge of Microsoft's health group.

The company's consumer health offering includes a personal health record as well as Internet search functions tailored for health queries, all under the name Microsoft HealthVault.

The personal information, Microsoft said, will be stored in a secure, encrypted database. Its privacy controls are set entirely by the individual, including what information goes in and who gets to see it.

The HealthVault searches will be conducted anonymously, Microsoft said, without being linked to any personal information in a HealthVault personal health record.

Microsoft does not expect most individuals to put a lot of their own health information on the Web. Instead, the company hopes that individuals will give doctors, clinics and hospitals permission to directly send to their HealthVault account information like medicines that have been prescribed or test results showing, say, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Such data transfers, Neupert said, could then be automatic, over the Internet, which is why the partnerships are so important.

"The issues are," Neupert said, "can we get the connections and demonstrate the value of this to people so they build up these records as they go along?"

Aurelia Boyer, the chief information officer at NewYork- Presbyterian Hospital, said the hospital was committed to helping patients manage their own health care.

After an initial discussion with Microsoft, the hospital pledged to start a pilot project to enable some kinds of patient data - electrocardiograms, perhaps - to be automatically sent to a HealthVault account.

If a patient chooses to have a Microsoft personal health record, Boyer said, "we want to support them."

The Microsoft entry comes at a time when people are increasingly going online, especially via Internet searches, to find health information. An aging population with more health concerns, as well as tighter curbs on medical spending, are two factors expected to prompt consumers to take a larger role in managing their own care using online tools like personal health records.

But this movement has not gone far yet. Microsoft is moving ahead at a time when other large technology companies have seen senior executives in their health units depart or have hit bumps in their efforts to push health initiatives.

The leader of Google's health group, Adam Bosworth, left last month. The company has been developing offerings broadly similar to Microsoft's - personal health records stored in Google data centers, and enhanced health search capabilities.

Google would not discuss the timing of its health plans.

At Cisco, the head of its health care practice, Jeffrey Rideout, recently left to join a private equity firm, Ziegler HealthVest Management. Cisco called his departure a "leave of absence."

And Dossia, a coalition led by Intel to provide employees at several large companies with personal health records, is moving forward more slowly than planned.

But while some technology companies are pulling back or slowing down in health, "Microsoft is stepping forward and finally declaring the hand it will play," said David Brailer, the former health information technology coordinator for the Bush administration, who now heads Health Evolution Partners, a firm that invests in medical ventures.

Privacy is an issue that could hinder the widespread use of personal health records. But Microsoft's privacy principles have impressed Deborah Peel, chair of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, a nonprofit group. In terms of patient control and agreeing to outside audits, "Microsoft is setting an industry standard for privacy," Peel said.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

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