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Mayo Clinic and Microsoft Deliver a Powerful and Personalized Consumer Solution for Managing Health

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 04:00 CDT

Mayo Clinic Health Manager, Powered by Microsoft HealthVault, Helps You and Your Family Become Better Organized, Better Informed

ROCHESTER, Minn. and REDMOND, Wash., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Mayo Clinic and Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Mayo Clinic Health Manager, a privacy- and security-enhanced free online application that provides people with a place to store medical information and receive real-time individualized health guidance and recommendations based on the clinical expertise of Mayo Clinic. This interactive functionality extends the capabilities of traditional personal health records, using an individual's health information to generate customized recommendations on which they can act to help them better manage their health and the health of their families.

People can organize health information for multiple family members, access the information from a single location, and proactively manage their health with the individualized guidance. Powered by Microsoft HealthVault, Mayo Clinic Health Manager allows users to store copies of their health records obtained from their providers, health plans, pharmacies, schools, government or employers; upload information from home health devices such as blood glucose monitors and digital scales; and share information with caregivers. The service provides access to products and services that help improve their health. It uses this information to deliver reminders and recommendations specific to each family member's life stage and health status. As users enter more personal health information, Mayo Clinic Health Manager delivers more specific and customized recommendations.

"As a physician, I truly appreciate when my patients are actively engaged and informed about their health," says Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel, M.D., a primary care physician at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester and medical director of Mayo Clinic Global Products and Services. "Mayo Clinic Health Manager can help patients share information more easily with their doctors and manage their own health better between office visits." Mayo Clinic Health Manager is easy to use, with features designed for busy parents, adults who are managing the health concerns of aging parents, and patients managing chronic conditions and multiple medications. Since the data is stored in Microsoft HealthVault, people can access their information whenever they need it - regardless of whether they change doctors, clinics, jobs or insurance plans.

In its initial offering, Mayo Clinic Health Manager will include tools and features that help manage: pediatric wellness, immunizations, adult wellness, pregnancy and asthma. Additional features will be incorporated in the upcoming months that will help users manage Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. In addition, Mayo Clinic and Microsoft will work to add new functionality and health guidance.

The health guidance is developed, reviewed and approved by a team of health care experts at Mayo Clinic and will be updated regularly to reflect best practices in health care. The technology was built on the Microsoft HealthVault platform, a security-enhanced online environment.

"Microsoft and Mayo Clinic came together because of our shared vision to help families take better care of their health," said David Cerino, general manager of the Consumer Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. "With Mayo Clinic Health Manager, we've combined the capabilities of Microsoft HealthVault with clinical leadership and health guidance from Mayo Clinic's vast body of medical knowledge to develop an interactive and customized health solution. It's a great match of technological innovation and health expertise that will help people live healthier lives."

Consumers can learn more about Mayo Clinic Health Manager and create their accounts at www.mayoclinic.com.

About Microsoft HealthVault

Microsoft HealthVault is a personal health application platform designed to put consumers in control of their health information. HealthVault provides a security-enhanced foundation on which a broad ecosystem of providers can build innovative health and wellness solutions such as personal health records, disease management, fitness, weight loss and other Web applications. HealthVault can be used to collect and store health information that would otherwise reside in disparate systems and transfer the information between a variety of providers' health services and systems. It enables the reuse and free flow of interoperable and transportable personal health information.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. Mayo Clinic Health Manager is operated by Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource for your health stories. For more on Mayo Clinic research, go to www.mayo.edu. For news about Mayo Clinic, please visit www.mayoclinic.org/news/.

For more information, visit the online media kit: http://pub.psbpr.com/microsoft_mayo/OnlineMediaKit/mediakit.html

SOURCE Mayo Clinic Health Manager

Source: PR Newswire

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