HealthVault: Microsoft to Beat Google Medical Search Thanks to MOM!
HealthVault: On the heels of Google losing its touchy-feely, NBC ER drama worthy Google Health evangelist–Adam Bosworth–Microsoft picks up the tried and true “moms and babies” and “dying grandma” pulling of the heart strings slack in launching its attack on the multi trillion dollar medical services business.
In unveiling its new HealthVault software and services healthcare ecosystem play today, Microsoft showed “faces of women that want a health information system that puts them at the center with their families.”
Over 8 million people search for health information online daily, Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft said.
BUT, ARE THEY REALLY ALL WOMEN? Microsoft unveiled its HealthVault to the world as if they are: “Remember its all about mom,” Neupert asserted.
Really? What about the twenty something professional, or the independent thriving senior, or, even MEN, married, single or otherwise! Does THEIR health not matter” Can men and single women NOT take care of themselves!
NO, it is all about the challenges faced by MOMs, at least in Microsoft’s positioning of its new high-powered, who needs Google Health push; Hey, when daughter “Debbie is playing at school,” MOM needs to be only a mouse click away to ensure access to Deb’s Personal Health Record, the Microsoft version!
True to form, the only visual on the Microsoft HealtVault portal homepage is a kissing and smiling “mom and child” pair!
Inconsistenly, though, in demoing actual use case scenarios, Microsoft showed an adult MALE patient taking control of his own health management with high-tech tools, and he managed quite well, WITHOUT MOM! Did Microsoft feel MOM was maybe not really up to the tech task?
Microsoft’s HealthVault is a three prong offering: 1) Private search experience, 2) Secure shared data repositry, 3) User connection Web portal.
For Neupert, HealthVault represents a “new and improved health delivery system” heralding a “broad democratization” of the U.S. medical sector. In other, usually Googley words, the “consumerization” of healthcare.
Microsoft’s “consumer-centric” pitch:
HEALTHVAULT ACCOUNT–The revolutionary and FREE way to collect, store, and share your health information with Web sites and doctors.
DIRECT INPUT: Enter your personal information, upload health documents, and create records for members of your family. It’s time to digitize the doctor’s office “clipboard”.
YOUR DOCTORS: Your whole healthcare provider team — from MDs to Chiropractors — are generating information about your health. You should have a copy of that information so that you can share it with all of them.
PRESCRIPTIONS: Medications need to be managed and renewed and, if your MD is e-prescribes, HealthVault can collect and store your medication history.
IMAGING & LAB RESULTS: Your images and lab results may also be a part of your health record, and HealthVault helps you keep copies of them inyour account.
HEALTH PLAN: Add the Personal Health Record information stored at your health plan to your HealthVault account.
WHO NEEDS GOOGLE HEALTH THEN? If it EVER launches!
Microsoft HealthVault is MORE than a high-powered Personal Health Record platform though:
PERSONAL HEALTH DEVICES: Connect a wide variety of HealthVault compatible devices from partners to your PC, and upload the data to your HealthVault account.
Microsoft has the resources, the technology, the partners and the will, to lead a PC-driven health revolution.
Will Redmond have the “MOMs” on its side, though?
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