Microsoft offers online health records.

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.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

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 blood pressure. It will enable heart patients to visit the AHA's website, open a HealthVault account, and submit their vital health information (blood-pressure readings, weight, and medications). Johnson & Johnson LifeScan, the nation's largest producer of the glucose monitors used by diabetes patients, said it will enable the monitors' readouts to be uploaded to a HealthVault account.

Peter Neupert, the vice president in charge of Microsoft's health group, told the Times that the biggest challenge will be building trust that the service is private and secure. Toward this goal, he said all personal information will be stored in a secure, encrypted database. Privacy controls will be determined by each individual, including what information is included in the account and who is allowed to view it. HealthVault searches will be conducted anonymously and will not be linked to any personal data in a HealthVault record.

"It's going to be a long journey," Neupert told the Times. "To make a difference in health care, it is going to take time and scale. And Microsoft has both."