Resources for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Microsoft Launches Health Records Site

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Microsoft Corp. launched a Web site Thursday for managing personal health and medical information, but privacy advocates worry that neither the technology nor U.S. law will protect patients' most confidential details.

From the consumer's point of view, Microsoft's HealthVault site is part filing cabinet, part library and part fax machine for an individual's or a family's medical records and notes.

The free site can store medical histories, immunization and other records from doctors' offices and hospital visits, including data from devices like heart monitors. It is also tied to a health information search engine the software maker launched last month.

Users can dole out access to different slices of their health data via e-mailed invitations to doctors, family members and other people as the need arises.

Microsoft has been kicking around the idea of a health site since at least 2000, when Chief Executive Steve Ballmer described a "health vault" in a speech to financial professionals in New York.

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