Microsoft launches MSN health application Microsoft has announced the availability of its brand new "health and wellness" HealthVault cloud platform in the UK. HealthVault is an MSN-hosted store for users to enter their data directly and to use applications or widgets developed by charity Nuffield Health. The announcement is full of well-meaning yadda yadda like …
I'm using HealthVault here in the US and the most useful thing for me is tracking my Omron Pedometer through their "Walk Me" application - http://bit.ly/WalkMe
There are a few other devices that support it, just as the Withings WiFi Scales so it's slowly growing.
The basic stats from my annual checkup - weight (increasing), height (decreasing), blood pressure (increasing), Cholesterol levels etc do get logged in there as well which makes for some interesting viewing over the last few years (has been scary enough to get my back to the gym on a regular basis)
My medical insurer (BUPA equivalent) is also a partner so anything they track (eg all my Dentist trips) do get logged in the system and it lets me at least double check that the billing records are accurate - and because it splits out what they paid for vs what I paid for I can at least make an attempt to budget for next year based on recurring things
Over time I suspect the integration will increase. Hopefully things like the NHS records will open up to two way synchronisation and there will be cross over with DNA testing services like 23andMe to help me refine what the genetic markers are predicting vs what actually seems to be happening (luckily the GINA legistlation here stops employers or medical insurance companies using that data against you)
In the same way that Internet Banking took a while to gain traction and comfort levels I think HealthVault willhave a slow start but end up a solid bit of technology folks can't imagine not having access to.
don't care, and will take a large fries with that. And a pint. MSN are not going to change that figure easily - I am interested in technology but this is the first I have heard of it. I also have no idea what my blood is doing, but if I did the last thing I would do is put it on 'tinternet. Some things just don't need to involve a computer.
The "worried well", however, will love it, and enable MSN to make some money off them.
ok so the people that look after their weight, exercise, smoking (thin, rich, active) use less health resources than the couch potatoes (fat, poor, sloth-like)
This is an association. not causation.
Therefore if all the couch potatoes suddenly put their data into a big box, particularly one owned by Bill Gates, it does not automagically follow that they somehow become healthy.
This obviously very healthy company producing nothing but flawless code and having a long standing more-benign-than-google track record can obviously have my health records too! I'll get healthier just because of that, instantly! Count me in! ROAD TO WELLNESS, HERE I COME!
I find it saddening beyond belief (but not surprising) they beat the governments to it. If health care is their job, then so is this, and the very inability to offer meaningful services with at least government backed guarantees for continuity and sustainability, nevermind privacy, means they just lost that much more credibility and raison d'etre. Big fat happy companies for government, anyone?
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