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Beth Israel Deaconess adds HealthVault option

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney August 26, 2008 05:21 PM

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Earlier this year, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center linked its online patient portal to Google Health, allowing patients and doctors to exchange information not only within the Beth Israel Deaconess clinical system, but also outside it.

Now Microsoft's HealthVault has joined the secure data-exchange party. Both options let patients upload information about their diagnoses, medications, and allergies, for example, onto their HealthVault or Google Health accounts to share with healthcare providers who don't have access to the hospital's PatientSite.

About 40,000 Beth Israel Deaconess patients and 1,000 clinicians use PatientSite to gain access to medical records, e-mail doctors, make appointments, renew prescriptions, and request referrals. Now patients can manage their health information from other sources through their choice of plan.

"We believe that patients should be the stewards of their own data," Dr. John Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess, said in a statement. He is also part of the Google Health Advisory Council.

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White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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