Microsoft Health Vault

from iHealthbeat,

"Microsoft has launched its HealthVault program, which offers consumers online personal health records. The company hopes that individuals will let health care providers directly transmit prescriptions, test results and other medical information to their HealthVault accounts. PHRs will be stored in a secure, encrypted database, and patients will be able to set the privacy controls"

Seeing this post I raced to find the "Vault"... First of all, it is complicated to set up, requiring a download of the basic program, and then and number of "connect" interfaces.  It is not designed for patients to enter their medical history, so it is not a true PHR, or personal health record. In addition, the patient must download a number of drivers for "devices".. These devices, so far include

"Healthy Circles", icePHR (In Case of Emergency),  these also interface with a blood pressure transduce, glucometer, spirometer,

There are several other websites one must go to to setup, enter, and read the data. Microsoft has developed a number of  "partners", which I will not mention here, just advise the reader to go to www.healthvault.com  Microsoft also has an interconnect program called "connect IQ", a portal that almost looks like a HIE, or RHIO.

For the patient, especially an elderly patient this will be difficult to setup, and use.  It will require a nurse or technical assistant to set it up and make it operational.  There will also be considerable expenses for the remote monitors.  The site also states that providers will be able to transfer medical records to the PHR as well. If all of this can be managed it does develop some slick looking tables and graphs of blood pressures, glucose levels,pulmonary function tests, and probably eventually a probe that will report CBCs and blood chemistries.....all from home.

The big question is will payors reimburse for all of this...Will this become part of P4P ?

This is not a patient oriented design.  Even for me it was a long pathway to download and figure it all out.  Setting up the actual vault took some time to complete, and then it was still an empty shell.  But then again I am only a doctor......more later....