Best Buy Announces Personal Health Solutions – Devices that Connect to HealthVault and More

This looks to be a solution to helping the consumer get connected, selecting the devices they feel are beneficial or perhaps recommended by their physicians or wellness coach programs. As mentioned in many posts on the blog here, blue tooth is rapidly changing the way we interact with medical devices that report data. I have a section devoted to personal health records here on the blog with over 200 posts that explain many of the features and “how to’s” with devices and their software.

Last week I posted an interview with Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand, they too now have the ability to access records with Microsoft HealthVault. This was a live interview captured via my cell phone and broadcast live to the internet and you can view at the link below.

Interview with Curtis Schroeder, CEO Bumrungrad International ...

Last week I was able to visit one of the new Microsoft Stores and perhaps in time we might see more help with HealthVault devices at their centers too. Also in the news of late, Best Buy has also contracted with a company to work with their own internal wellness coaches.

MUVE GRUVE - Track The Calories You Burn in Real Time – Accelerometer Device

Another good site to look up is the “IamEnabled” internet site. The site has additional HealthVault education information and will help you get involved in monitoring your own healthcare.

HealthVault Goes Viral - IAmEnabled.com – Social Networking, Marketing and Education

So many times I have spoken about the huge training process needed to bring everyone from CEOs, doctors, patients, etc. into the world of digital healthcare and the value and it looks like retailer Best Buy is joining the ranks to help bring some of this around to help learn how to connect and use data reporting devices. This is moving fast and the more you know about digital records and getting involved as a patient, the better off you are. BD

One Hell of a Training Program Needed – Digital Health At All Levels

Best Buy announced today that 40 of its stores in the U.S. have begun offering personal health solutions devices like pedometers, Bluetooth-enabled weight scales and blood pressure monitors.

“New technologies are emerging daily to help people plan, monitor, and enhance their health and fitness activities,” Best Buy stated in its press release. “Yet finding the ways and the time to stay fit and motivated can seem more complicated than ever before. Starting today, Best Buy customers in select markets from Washington, DC to Denver can turn to the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer for help in satisfying their health and fitness equipment and management needs.”

At the Microsoft Connected Health Conference this past June, Best Buy teamed up with Microsoft’s HealthVault team to invite device makers to pitch the electronics store’s executives in a private meeting at the event: “If you believe that your product or solution can wow health-conscious shoppers at the largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States, this is your chance to make it happen,” stated the Microsoft-Best Buy invitation for “HealthVaultDevices@BestBuy”. The invitation also explained that “outstanding solutions providers” would have the opportunity to discuss collaboration opportunities with Best Buy during a special dinner later this summer. Qualifications for the device companies included the ability to “demonstrate how health data can be transferred from their device, via a wired or wireless connection, to a PC, phone or directly to the cloud.”

Best Buy’s initial health and fitness product offerings include everything from tread mills and yoga mats to pedometers, connected weight scales, heart rate trackers and blood pressure monitors. Sure, some customers may need a little help connecting some of these devices to their computers (or mobile phones), but this is only the beginning.