healthvault

Microsoft hopes to vamp up its HealthVault and other health services by making it easier for users to do everything from track their caloric intake to count their steps using their cell phones, according to researchers at a Microsoft forum on health care technology in Beijing.

Microsoft researchers are also busy investigating the potential of Xbox 360 units--which are cheaper than similar hospital equipment yet often just as powerful--to feed and filter information from electronic medical records onto in-room display screens for patients and caregivers, according to Desney Tan, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research, who spoke during the … Read more

MSN this week released its beta version of a new online health information management service, including widgets to upload and organize data stored in HealthVault accounts.

MSN describes My Health Info (requires Silverlight) as a feature designed for busy parents, adults managing aging parents, and anyone managing chronic conditions and multiple medications.

That's a wide net to cast, and I say it's about time that those storing data in Microsoft's HealthVault have online access to their own, well, vaults. For years people have been able to access e-mail, financial, and other accounts online, and even aggregate that … Read more

The Mayo Clinic on Tuesday said it will build a personal health record service based on Microsoft's HealthVault technology.

The product, Mayo Clinic Health Manager, will initially focus on general pediatric and adult health issues, immunization records, pregnancy, and asthma. In the coming months, the clinic will add tools to help manage chronic conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

"Mayo Clinic Health Manager can help patients share information more easily with their doctors and manage their own health better between office visits," said Mayo Clinic doctor Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel, who also serves … Read more

Google has brought seven new languages to its Google Translate service. According to the company, Albanian, Estonian, Galician, Hungarian, Maltese, Thai, and Turkish have been added. The company also announced that its English dictionary has been improved to "include synonyms, antonyms, pronunciations, detailed definitions, and examples from Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary." All its new features are available now.

User Centric, a company that researches user experiences, announced Monday that it has concluded its usability study of Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. According to its findings, which took opinions from 30 participants who were asked to … Read more

Check out Google CEO Eric Schmidt's keynote presentation at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference (see the video below). He makes the argument for Google harnessing its search platform for dealing with the major inefficiencies and ills of the healthcare system.

The first principle, "It's the consumers data," Schmidt said. "Users can access the data and can control who can see it." And, because the data is in the cloud, it can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

With both Google and Microsoft, with its HealthVault, investing heavily in gaining converts to their respective … Read more