Microsoft has created a new health website that aims to store all your medical data online. Naturally, the idea has many concerned about security and whether uploading all your private health information is a good idea. Over the next months, Microsoft will need to convince patients and physicians alike that it is.
Health Vault Purpose and Features
With the recent launch of HealthVault.com, currently in beta, users can submit their medical records online and control who can access this data. From one account, users can maintain records for an entire family, even their pets. Inputting data is straightforward, with options to enter data manually, input from health documents, or download information from devices such as glucose monitors. Users can then manage how they want to share their profiles.
Microsoft intends to create a central health care database where patients and doctors can easily keep track of the patients’ health and share up-to-date information with each other. Because the information is in one place, doctors and specialists can see the same record and avoid conflicting treatments or prescriptions. And patients will now have one main place to organize their health information.
Privacy Concerns About Health Vault
Even though the service is free, the cost of this convenience may be too high for some. Many have sensitive medical information they would not want to share. Heart rate charts and daily logs of miles jogged are one thing, but HIV test results and mental health records can ruin a life if leaked.
To alleviate these concerns, Microsoft has made a point of providing top security and privacy. Only people the user has explicitly granted permission can view their records, and only what the user chooses to show them. The system encrypts each account’s data and keeps track of when someone accesses or modifies this data. Furthermore, the ads that will eventually appear will not be context-based.
How well patients and physicians receive Health Vault will largely depend on trust and not so much on demand. Many medical offices, both private and public, resist updating their paper system that has worked well enough. In fact, 80 percent of private doctor offices do not use electronic records.
And despite Microsoft’s reassurances, many users will not feel the same confidence and comfort in front of the computer that they would feel in their doctor’s office.
Online depositories such as Health Vault will inevitably become commonplace, but this may not happen as soon as Microsoft hopes.
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