Microsoft Health Vault Vs Revolution Health

First, let me disclose that I have been researching and using electronic health records for over thirty years. I worked as a claims supervisor for a health insurance company, back when computers needed climate controlled rooms. Our company also owned medical centers, so we had access to the original patient charts. We met with programmers from IBM who custom designed a program. Our doctors used a check off list to detail the office visit. Then key punch operators entered the checked offs to allow the computer to store the information. We could request reports to be printed out showing an individual's usage as well as aggregate information comparing one patient to another.

Almost twenty years later, I carried an Osborne 1 to doctor's offices. I typed the information from the patient's chart into a Word Perfect file and saved it on to a floppy disk. We made a copy for the patient by request, though most didn't have a computer. Mostly, I just attached a monitor to the computer to demonstrate the program at conferences.

I attended the first health information privacy meeting that was held in Washington DC, while I was there for a conference on Community Health Information Systems. The meeting was open to the public, but only a small group of insurance company reps and advocates attended. It was generally agreed that insurance companies should pay for the infrastructure with the participation of regional health providers. By the early 1990's, thousands of people attended these conferences. Every doctor who had a relative in computers, had a health record start-up. They offered everything from free hardware to weeks of training in exotic vacation spots. Without the support of the local practitioners, patients had little knowledge of what was taking shape. The insurance industry's focus on cutting reimbursement to providers made a true partnership impossible.