HealthVault for Europe? Not just yet

Tags: Africa European Health healthcare HealthVault information PHR Security social software US

24 Oct 2007

One of Microsoft’s senior managers for healthcare has told E-Health Europe that the company would like to bring a version of its new HealthVault personal health record (PHR) to Europe - though it has no immediate plans to do so.

The US software giant launched its HealthVault personal health record in the US on 9 October, which allows users to store and share their health records using a free online service.

Speaking to EHE at the World of Health IT conference in Vienna, Microsoft’s senior healthcare executive in Europe the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Elizabeth Bielby, said: “HealthVault is a US launch only, but to bring it outside the US is something we absolutely want to do. However, we want to make sure that we comply with data protection and security requirements.”

“We feel very strongly that HealthVault is a citizen-centred record and it is up to the citizen to decide who has access to that data.”

Microsoft’s EMEA health boss made clear that HealthVault had been designed specifically for the US market and Europe had different requirements on data protection.

“We have no PHR plans for Europe currently,” said Bielby. She stressed, however, that the company remained “extremely interested” in working with potential European partners to work on other Health 2.0 style applications, such as using social networking tools and to place more control and information to individuals over their healthcare.

“We have an over-arching commitment to help ensure people can live better, longer and healthier lives. The way we encapsulate that is with the concept of knowledge driven health.

Reader's Comments

Double standards

31 Oct 07 14:10

Whilst the Microsoft representative quotes patient choice, the concept that Healthvault should only work for the USA, and that Europe is different is undermined by this statement.

If I choose to create a Youtube, a Yahoo, Google or an MSN account for other purposes, my current location or home state is irrelevant (with perhaps the exception of places like Burma or China!). And Microsoft is very happy to sell their desktop products, or allow web downloads around the globe.

If it is a voluntary opt-in solution, I do not see why they need to restrict this to the USA. The opportunity for European and other software vendors to make their Healthcare solutions 'Healthvault' compatible is hampered by this.

I renewed my leading anti-virus software recently, and was shocked by the smallprint, which passed my credit card details to a third party, processed outside the EU (and explicitly outside EU Law), and defaulted to automatically renewing. There was no opt-out, and I was paying.

It is good if Microsoft are considering carefully EU protections for the patient, but there are many shortcomings that people choose or are forced to ignore on the web. I think the benefits for people who travel a lot are significant, and a personal choice meanwhile.

Of course if they were having problems making it multilingual, it might be more understandable ...