RSSHow will Microsoft's initiatives impact health care?
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published March 7, 2008, 3:34 PM
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During a panel discussion at the recent Internet Caucus State of the Net Conference in Washington, Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Health Solutions Group, also honed in on privacy and security. "In order for us to think about how does our brand extend to being a custodian of people's private health information, we really had to think through the privacy issues, the security issues, the trust issues, and what were the means by which we could be an effective custodian to do that," Neupert maintained. "And I think it comes down to some very straightforward principles, which is -- the consumer is in control. And in that regard, that's our approach."
Apparently putting technology where its mouth is, Microsoft is incorporating a number of security and privacy precautions into HealthVault, including a "minimal access" data model, to help make sure that information isn't read by anyone without the user's consent; logs and audit trails for keeping track of when a record is written, changed, or read; and encryption of all health care data, including backup data.
In entering this new market, though, Microsoft does face at least a couple of specific tests -- specifically, lack of experience in the health care industry, and issues around interoperability with both existing health care solutions and new ones that might be forthcoming from open source developers.
On paper, at least, Microsoft seems to be taking these factors into account, too. Like both IBM and Google, Microsoft is partnering with third-party software application vendors specializing in health care.
For example, the Xbox 360-based Cerner MyStation -- a recent collaborative effort between Microsoft, Cerner Corp., and Spectrum Health -- is meant to let "patients take an active role" in their health care, while at the same time gaining a "positive diversion" by playing video games, listening to music, or watching TV or movies.
In the enterprise arena, Microsoft last week unveiled a health care collaboration pact with SAP.
Also last week, Microsoft rolled out a "Be Well Fund" designed to fund research by health care providers in areas such as infectious disease prevention, heart rate monitor input and exercise, and pregnancy and parenting.
Several moves are under way on the interoperability aspect, too. For one thing, Microsoft has now released the HealthVault platform XML interface protocols under its Open Specification Promise. Also complete is an open source project involving an implementation of the HealthVault API wrapper for the Java development environment (Ms-PL) on Microsoft CodePlex.
Naturally, some consumers will resist the idea of Microsoft -- and quite possibly, any other company or government agency -- becoming "custodians" of their health care data. But given the other obstacles the company has to face to crack this market, user reluctance may be the least of its worries.
March 10, 2008
Dear Ms. Emigh:
I read with great interest your March 7 article on electronic personal health records and thought you would find MyMedicalRecords of interest because we've overcome some of the concerns expressed about privacy, user-friendly technology, etc. MMR has contracts with organizations covering more than 30 million lives to provide our services.
Contrasting MMR to other popular EMR products, MMR is delivering the most user-friendly, convenient and versatile web-based Personal Health Record available today. Using our proprietary patent pending technologies, complete patient information including actual lab test results, radiology reports and images, progress notes and all of a patient’s charts can be uploaded or faxed with annotated voice notes and comments directly into the user’s password-secured account. Users do not need to install any special software or use any special hardware to use our service.
MMR also has integrated other advanced features, such as multilingual translation, a drug interaction database of more than 20,000 medications, calendaring for prescription refills and doctor appointments, and private voicemail for a doctor’s message and other personal uses.
There also is a special “Emergency Log-In” feature that allows a doctor to access a user’s account to view their most important medical information in the event of a medical emergency. To ensure individual privacy, specific data, such as prescriptions, allergies, blood type and copies of actual medical files or images, are pre-selected by the user for inclusion in the online read-only Emergency Folder.
In addition, MMR also includes an online ESafeDeposit Box feature that enables users to securely store any important document in a virtual “lock box” and access them anytime from anywhere using an Internet-connected computer or PDA. These documents can include Advanced Directives, Wills, insurance policies, birth certificates, photos of Family, Pets and Property, and more. MMR is clearly one of the most complete user-friendly Personal Health Records available today (I can provide details).
Incidentally, MMR has built a two-way data interface to Google Health and our understanding with Google is that MMR will be part of their public launch expected shortly. This will enable users to move information from their Google Health account to their MyMedicalRecords account and vice versa. This will enhance the Google Health user experience by allowing the individual to store documents, images, and other personal information in MMR’s easy-to-use personal health record and will have the benefit of all the additional features MMR has that are not available directly within Google Health.
I would encourage you to visit MMR and set up a complimentary account. Simply go to www.mymedicalrecords.com and sign up using registration code MMRBLOG. I would be interested in your experience and hope that you will include us in any further discussions of Personal Health Records. I could also send you more information by email or snail mail (the latter allows me to send a bit more than I’d want to clog your email with). Recently, we sent out a release about MMR Pro, which will better enable physicians to put patient records into secure, online accounts.
Sincerely,
Scott S. Smith
Director of Public Relations
MyMedicalRecords.com
11000 Santa Monica Blvd. #430
Los Angeles CA 90067
888/808-4667
Ext 123 (Cell: 310/254-4051)
ssmith@mmrmail.com
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|Mailto link under the headline, genius.
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|Well, one possible answer to the question posed by the title could be an increase in cardiac arrests from reading the licensing costs for the Microsoft products that are required to make it all work.
All joking (sort of) aside, anything that can be done to cut down how many f-ing times I have to re-write all my stupid personal and medical info on a bazillion forms is welcome news to me. I've had to re-enter the same info on multiple forms in the same office more times than I can recall. It's just dumb.
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|as I sit here pouring over a stck a foot high (11 3/4 in high to be exact) of bills from doctors and hospitials. With insuranc! After 5 months of getting cancer,I have to argue overbieng doubled billd tripple billed!!! Something needs to be done!
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|I just hope the Blue Screen of Death will not be literal for someone.
Tim S
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|According to some secret medical documents, the Microsoft OS Windows XP was the leading source for infesting Schizophrenia in human beings.
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