Big Week for Health 2.0 – Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health Launch

May 21, 2008 | Written by Yan Shikhvarger

After months of speculation both platforms publicly launched within several days of each other in beta form. Microsoft launched May 12th and Google launched May 19th.

Users on both sites can store their health info, look up additional educational materials, and search for doctors all in one place. This will make it much easier for patients to keep track of their records. Partnering institutions have also gotten on board such as Beth Israel and the Cleveland Clinic and allow syncing up of patient medical history. Also, valuable tools are provided such as automatic drug interaction monitor.

How this will play out between the two platforms is still a question. Microsoft has a bigger magazine style presence in the health space. Its MS Health destination has been around for a long time. Google is the dominant player in search. It could use that position to get its health platform in fron of a masses of health information searchers. It will be interesting to see how each will leverage those positions moving forward.

See screenshots below…

MS Health Landing Page Screen – (www.HealthVault.com)

Google Health landing page (https://www.google.com/health) lists all the major functions of the platform

Sample disease information page. Interesting to note that the content is provided by A.D.A.M – a well known medical info content syndicator. It is very frequently used by other sites that need health content.

Various opportunities to link personal health profile to various information sources. This list will grow as more and more providers develop tools, widgets, etc… A model that has worked with Google Docs and iGoogle.

Google Health developers forum and API