Microsoft HealthVault: The Future of Medical Records

Last Thursday, Microsoft took the lead in fulfilling Bush’s objective to provide an electronic medical record for every American by 2014 with the launch of a new website; Microsoft HealthVault. This service is free of charge and allows patients “to collect, store, and share” their medical history with their doctors and other healthcare providers. With health records saved in one location, patients can manage their own healthcare records by viewing past x-rays, labs and other medical reports from various doctors all at once. This makes Microsoft HealthVault (Please see image to the right) especially useful for patients with serious health conditions such as diabetes or heart disease that need to be constantly monitored by more than one doctor or healthcare professional. These patients can upload their blood sugar, weight, and blood pressure levels on a regular basis to share with medical providers to better monitor their own healthcare. The active participation of physicians and hospitals in the new online system is critical to its success and will give patients the ability to have constant access to their medical files. As stated in the New York Times, “Tighter curbs on medical spending and an aging population with more health concerns are expected to prompt consumers to take a larger role in managing their own care, including using online tools”. By providing greater access to personal health information, Microsoft and other companies hope to take the lead on providing patients with a way to take control of their own healthcare.

Electronic medical records have the potential to create more efficiency in our healthcare system by eliminating paperwork, and creating a single medical file for each patient that can be continuously updated at various locations and times. According to studies reported by Catherine Rampell from the Washington Post, “creating a nationwide electronic medical-record network would save more than $500 billion in medical costs over 15 years”. Nevertheless, due to the novelty of this system, most consumers are apprehensive to use it. Many people still do not trust the World Wide Web, and they worry about the safety of their medical information online. Comments posted on blogs like TechCrunch, reveal that patients do not feel safe putting their personal medical history online with a private company like Microsoft, which has had several security breaches in the past. Microsoft has said that it has made security a top priority for HealthVault, emphasizing the fact that patients control their accounts and no information will be shared without their consent. Microsoft is also a member of TRUSTe, which is a nonprofit organization that builds “trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices”(Please see image to the left). Nonetheless, as noted by Peter Neupert, the Vice President of Microsoft’s health group, the company will need to build its reputation in regards to consumer privacy through consumer experience. The ability to make patients feel safe posting their medical information online is going to be one of the most difficult obstacles of electronic medical records.

Another impediment with implementing electronic medical records rather than maintaining paper-based files, is having healthcare providers actively participate in digitalizing their files. It is estimated that “about 90 percent of physicians and more than 80 percent of hospitals still use paper records”. Many healthcare providers are comfortable with their current systems and do not feel like that they have the time or the money to implement a computerized medical database for their patients. According to an interview with Dr. Robert A. Jenders at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, implementing an electronic database is too much trouble because all of the employees would need to be re-trained and the new infrastructure would cost a lot of money without any guaranteed financial returns. Dr. Jenders states, “Their office practice works very well as it is now and time is money”. Without all healthcare providers working in a computerized database, patients’ information could remain staggered between electronic medical records and paper files leading to inconsistencies and medical errors.

Microsoft was the first big private company to launch a personalized medical record website but it will definitely not be the last. Google and AOL’s co-founder Steve Case, already have plans underway to launch electronic health record services of their own in the near future. With time, I believe that electronic medical records will dramatically reduce administration costs, increase efficiency, and create a single accessible medical record for each patient. However, in order for this to happen, Microsoft and other companies wanting to provide electronic medical record services need to earn the trust of their consumers, and create user-friendly systems that all healthcare providers would want to use.