| Cleveland Clinic Pilots Microsoft HealthVault
Cleveland Clinic said it is collaborating with Microsoft
Corp. to pilot the patient-controlled data exchange between Microsoft
HealthVault – a Web-based personal health platform suite of
widely-used digital medical devices – and eCleveland Clinic
MyChart, Cleveland Clinic’s electronic personal health record
(PHR) system.
More than 150,000 Cleveland Clinic patients use
eCleveland Clinic MyChart. The short-term pilot, begun on Nov. 3, is
the first pilot in the country to follow multiple diseases in the
clinical delivery setting using multiple at-home devices such as
glucometers, heart rate monitors, weight scales and blood pressure
monitors.
The pilot will be a physician-driven, invitation-only
opportunity offered to a group of Cleveland Clinic PHR users in the
areas of diabetes, hypertension and heart failure. Cleveland Clinic
plans to enroll approximately 400 patients and aims to demonstrate that
the program will enable patients and physicians to better manage and
track chronic diseases from home, using the patient’s own
computer.
"As the prevalence of chronic disease rises at an
alarming rate in the United States, the strain on our nation’s
economy and healthcare system can not be relieved without the creation
of innovative, cost-effective solutions that involve patients in
proactively managing their healthcare," said Dr. C. Martin Harris,
chief information officer, Cleveland Clinic. "At Cleveland Clinic, we
strive to participate in and help to advance the national dialogue
around a more efficient and effective national healthcare system. This
pilot is intended to demonstrate that utilization of our comprehensive
PHR system can empower patients and physicians to better communicate
and manage chronic conditions, improve efficiencies and hopefully lower
costs."
Patients will be provided HealthVault-enabled digital
devices, such as blood pressure monitors and glucometers, and asked to
perform regular health monitoring. By connecting the device(s) to their
home computers, their health information will be uploaded, with their
consent, to a personal HealthVault account controlled by the patient,
and then sent to their Cleveland Clinic MyChart account. This data will
create an online log of the readings that will be available to the
patient’s physician. Data sent from a patient’s HealthVault
account to MyChart can not be changed or altered in any way.
By connecting with Microsoft HealthVault, Cleveland Clinic hopes to deliver:
- Improved Outcomes for Patients – Using
home-based devices, patients may be more apt totrack and measure their
health, improving compliance and data integrity and allowing physicians
to more efficiently view, track and measure their data.
- Improved Clinician Efficiency – By
receiving reliable, consistent and automatic patient data, physicians
can improve the quality of office visits and reduce the length of
appointment times.
- Consumer Empowerment – This type of
Web-enabled, consumer-driven approach will provide patients with
increased control of their medical information and an important part to
play in the management of their chronic disease.
Addresses: Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44195; (800) 223-2273, www.clevelandclinic.org. Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98050; (415) 882-8080, www.microsoft.com.
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