U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin recently announced a partnership that will allow users of HHS' My Family Health Portrait to integrate their health information with Microsoft's HealthVault personal health record platform, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 2/25).
My Family Health Portrait allows users to create an online health record that includes family history information on:
- Diabetes;
- Heart disease;
- Sickle cell anemia; and
- Other genetic conditions.
The tool compiles the information into a printable format that can help physicians diagnose illness and make treatment decisions.
The Microsoft collaboration will allow users to integrate their records into HealthVault, where connected health care providers can access the data.
Both applications have privacy and security settings to protect patient information (Lipowicz, Federal Computer Week, 2/25).
Benjamin said that the collaboration is part of a broad plan to expand My Family Health Portrait's capabilities (Modern Healthcare, 2/25).
HHS unveiled My Family Health Portrait in 2004 and launched an updated, standards-compliant version in January 2009. The Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid at the National Cancer Institute currently hosts the program (Moore, Government Health IT, 2/25).