Microsoft Wants Your Health Records

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"All About Search"

Microsoft is hoping it can make money on the service—which is free to patients—with help from a little box inside HealthVault's page, where consumers can search the Web. The box connects customers to a health-care search engine created by Medstory, a Foster City (Calif.) company that Microsoft acquired in February. Unlike the traditional list of links produced by general-interest search engines such as Google or Microsoft's Live.com, Medstory queries generate health-specific information, grouped together under topics such as clinical studies, nutrition, and medication.

There's also a spot for sponsored links. And that's where Microsoft is betting it can make money. A recent Harris Interactive (HPOL) poll found that 76% of adults over 55 use the Web to help diagnose their medical conditions. Those queries generate $500 million to $1 billion in advertising a year, according to Microsoft's estimates. "It's all about search," says Neupert, who sees the market growing to $5 billion in five to seven years.

If Microsoft can funnel more of those queries through its search engine, it can easily justify the business and, in the process, gain a step on Google, which is pushing forward with its own health-care-records initiative. The search engine giant hasn't been forthcoming with details, but reports say its efforts have been delayed until at least 2008 following the unexpected departure of former Microsoft engineer Adam Bosworth, who was leading the charge.

Also working to Microsoft's advantage is that most medical information is already in digital form, ready to be gathered up in one place. Terabytes of electronic health-care data already exist, scattered on the servers of pharmacies, insurers, hospitals, and many doctors' offices. But the records typically are on disconnected systems. That's because the information isn't collected to help patients as much as it is gathered to make sure people are paid. With the data in one place, any doctor should have access to it.

Patient Buy-in Required

But to get HealthVault off the ground, Microsoft will have to persuade people to opt in. Those with the most to gain may be patients with chronic ailments. Diabetics, for example, monitor their blood sugar daily with a glucometer, and many of the devices can connect to a PC so users can keep track of their readings. Microsoft has worked with one of the largest makers of gluco­meters, Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) LifeScan unit, to enable consumers to connect to HealthVault. That way, patient information could be instantly added to a person's medical records and, in turn, be made immediately available to the diabetic's endocrinologist.

Convincing patients that Microsoft can safeguard their data, though, won't be easy. Dr. Deborah C. Peel, the founder and chair of the consumer advocacy group Patient Privacy Rights, says she believes Microsoft's servers are about as secure as they get. That's because "if they spill the data, it would completely ruin" Microsoft's reputation, says Peel. "It would be like the Exxon Valdez."

Microsoft is willing to take that risk—and is betting that putting a trove of information in patients' hands will ultimately make money while improving health care. For Microsoft, HealthVault isn't so much a leap in technology as it is a smart business bet. "This isn't bleeding edge," says Glen E. Tullman, chief executive of Allscripts. "It's leading edge."

With Arlene Weintraub in New York and Robert D. Hof in San Mateo, Calif.