Google, Microsoft confirm new health partners
Microsoft and Google have been steadily adding partners to their competing health platforms, and both companies made new announcements today.
Microsoft said it would integrate its HealthVault platform with Amalga, a Microsoft technology that some hospitals use to aggregate patient data. New York-Presbyterian Hospital signed up for Amalga and HealthVault today.
Meanwhile, Google said it had teamed up with CVS so that millions of CVS customers would be able to easily transfer their prescription history to an online Google Health account.
Google Health's push into prescriptions expands the option to people who may not see the need to maintain a full health record.
Not everybody is going to need a personal health record. Some people aren't sick. But everybody takes medication at some point, even if you're relatively healthy and only take allergy drugs, said Missy Krasner, product marketing manager for Google.
The companies are building platforms that anybody can use to store medical records online. It’s unclear, though, how either platform is doing since neither company has said how many people have actually signed up for accounts.
The recent economic stimulus bill, which allocates billions to the goal of electronic health records for every American, should help both systems.
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