Australia’s rush to build personal e-health records risky

Australian software developers clamouring to build personal e-health records risk creating new silos of unconnected patient information, warns Neil Jordan, Microsoft's managing director of worldwide health. In recent years, Microsoft has put a large effort into health IT, particularly consumer health IT, mainly through acquisition of successful companies and technology. Jordan said there is "huge" Australian interest in Microsoft's HealthVault, a consumer health web-based platform. Most of Microsoft's work in the United States with HealthVault has been "trying to corral" organizations that have patient record systems and get them to open up their applications so that information can be transferred in and out, Jordan added. HealthVault cannot be launched in Australia until it complies with the country's privacy laws.