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EHRs/PHRs
Search Engines Using Your Personal Health Information: Creepy or Cutting Edge?
When using a search engine, should results be customized based on your personal health information (PHI)? Should your search engine of choice take into account your previous history of medical searches, or even provide results tailored from data about your personal medical history?
Two companies — Aetna and Microsoft — have come up with 180 degree different answers.
In this post, I will:
Describe how Aetna’s and Microsoft’s approaches differ
Speculate on why their approaches make strategic sense for the respective companies
Explore how technology and expectations about […]
4 Reasons Why Health Plans Struggle with PHRs
Aetna recently made another big announcement relating to their PHR. While the concept of what they’re doing is very appealing, it strikes me that health plans in general face an uphill battle in getting consumers to adopt and use personal health records (PHRs).
I’ll describe 4 factors behind my thinking:
Lack of Trust
Lack of Access to Clinical Data
Lack of Permission
Lack of Convenience in Consumer Workflow
Going to the Mat for Dorothy
by Jill KuraitisÂ
Vince gave me Dorothy’s story to read, and here’s what I said: GO DOROTHY!  ::::goofy little happy dance:::  Dorothy is my new hero. I love people who are willing to go to the mat for a cause, especially one having to do with the elderly, children, the disabled and less fortunate than we.
Since Vince and I have been overwhelmed by the swamp of details of taking care of our family elderly for about, oh, 13 years – my […]
Birth Announcement: the Personal Health Information Network (PHIN)
Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD MBAÂ
The Internet and digital technologies have transformed many aspects of our lives over the past twenty years. We can get cash at ATMs all over the world; we can book our own airline reservations; we can shop and get best prices over the Internet.
Why hasn’t this happened in health care? Something is missing.
Recently, major global information and communication companies have announced their intention to bring their technologies and business models to health care. […]
“Give me Auntie’s medical records or put me in the slammer!”
We underestimate how much people REALLY want medical infomation about themselves and their loved ones.Â
Dorothy Tillman wanted it so badly that she was arrested! Read more at Jaz-Michael King’s blog, A Scanner Brightly.
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Hat tip to Jen McCabe Gorman for spotting this amazing story.
A First Comparison of Google Health and MS HealthVault
While details are thin, here’s a first pass at comparing and contrasting Google Health (GH) and Microsoft HealthVault (HV). Overall, there are many common features, some differences, and many common challenges between these two platforms.Â
A High Level Comparison
Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault Personal Health Information (PHI) Platforms
There’s still not much information available about the specifics of GH, although they did release sketchy information on the Official Google Blog.  I’ll comment on a few of the particulars.
The Wrong Way and the Right Way to Frame PHR Privacy/Confidentiality Issues
 Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD MBAÂ
During the past week two reports were released discussing privacy/confidentiality issues surrounding PHRs. One of these reports did it the wrong way; one did it the right way.
The general public is just learning about Personal Health Records (PHRs). We believe that the appropriate way to frame the dialogue for the public is to acknowledge both the benefits and risks:
Benefits: PHRs (and EHRs) have the potential to save lives, reduce medical errors, improve patient […]
UnitedHealth a First Mover for “PHRs for Life”. Way to go!
CONGRATULATIONS to UnitedHealth! They’ve announced that they are making their personal health records (PHRs) transportable:
The OptumHealth and UnitedHealthcare units of Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group have made their personal health records service accessible for life.
That means an individual covered by UHC insurance or OptumHealth’s outsourced health and wellness services will be able to access their PHR–and continue to enter data into it–if they change jobs or insurance coverage.
Prediction: over time, the market will force all employers, payers, and providers to provide interoperable and […]
Four Misconceptions About HealthVault and the Emerging Personal Health Information Ecosystem (PHI-Ecosystem)
by Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD MBAÂ
The health care and technology worlds are still trying to figure out what Microsoft’s HealthVault (HV) is all about. We believe that there are a number of misconceptions out there about what HV is and isn’t:
Misconception #1: HealthVault is a personal health record (PHR).
Misconception #2: People don’t trust Microsoft, so they won’t sign up for and use HV.
Misconception #3: Patients don’t understand PHRs, don’t want them, and don’t know what they’d do with them. […]
Microsoft’s HealthVault: User Manual = C-, Strategy to Create a New Ecosystem = A
Would you like to have the experience of being parachuted into a deep forest with no map of where you are or clues about how to get out? If so, I suggest that you go directly to Microsoft’s new PHR at www.healthvault.com and just TRY to figure out where you are or where you’re headed.
Initial confusion put aside, I think HealthVault is strategically brilliant. While I’d give Microsoft a C- for explaining HealthVault (HV), I’ll give them an A for […]