Microsoft HealthVault

Everybody is talking (WSJ-Health Blog, MedGadget, Health IT Guy, and many more) about the introduction of Microsoft HealthVault.

This seems to be a step in the right direction for personally controller health records. The direct device interfaces are particularly interesting.

Update:

There's more discussion about this on the HISTalk blog. People certainly have strong feelings about whether PHR has a future, and even stronger ones about Microsoft. From here:

Last on HealthVault: lots of people hate Microsoft. Blue screen of death. Microsoft Bob. Forced upgrades. Browser security holes. Antitrust issues. Internet tollgate. Assume people buy into PHRs on a big scale. Of all the companies offering PHRs, which one would they trust least with their most personal information? Some Ukrainain hater will have it hacked by this time next week, I suspect.

Even if this was a real concern, I'm not so sure the general public has this level of technical knowledge that would lead them to distrust Microsoft.

In any case, I think a bigger concern about companies like Microsoft and Google getting into PHR is their bottom line motive: advertising. You can be sure that everything they do is driven by a business model -- i.e to make money. This makes their shareholders happy, but what will it ultimately mean for PHR?