HealthVault PHR Creates API for Developers to Write and Create HealthVault Apps

If you are not a developer then this may not be too exciting but if you have a friend that is one, you can pass this along:) You will need a Visual Studio Kit and know a bit about programming, but if you are a consumer you can probably expect to see some HealthVault applications soon. One thing about HealthVault is that it is “non-tethered” so the information contained is yours to share with how you desire and is not sold to 3rd parties. So as not to be confusing though there are 3rd party applications like Fitbit and others who do sell data or data profiles that do connect to HealthVault, but when choosing to use them to connect, they have already collected the data or data profiles they want to sell by use of “their” app. That’s how that works, so if your device connects directly to HealthVault without an app, then there’s nobody else collecting the data.

The Blue Button and the Direct Project of course are direct imports or connections where data is secured and not exposed to a 3rd party application. One former Microsoft HealthVault employee now has sock sensors, Sensora, that will eventually connect to HealthVault and again no data sold here either. I like the privacy statements of those who don’t sell data, they are real simple, i.e. “we don’t sell your data” versus 2-15 pages of a privacy statement that some lawyer wrote that is confusing as all get out, where you have no clue as to half of what you have read.

The Computer is in Your Socks–Sensors and Monitoring Discreetly at Your Feet…Beyond the Accelerator With Mobile Health Monitoring

Sean from HealthVault pretty much says what you read here all the time…used in context with whatever blog post I am adding.

“In the world today --- code is power. Code runs virtually everything around us, so making sure our users have code-level access to their information is the most real and sincere way we can possibly say: it’s yours, do with it what you want.”

So stay tuned and you might start seeing HealthVault applications for use soon…and I might guess Microsoft might put a few of their own creations out there as it’s kind of been their history to do so with a lot of their projects. Here’s another project in the making too that will not sell your data and who knows perhaps the Tri-Coder when it’s ready might also connect to record your data. BD

Scanadu Tricoder Scout–One mHealth Device Not Selling Data For Profit Goes To Crowdfunding, Will the FDA Consider Privacy in Their Mobile Device Approval System

HealthVault is a pretty great aggregator of health data. We have more than 200 biometric monitoring devices connected to the platform: fitness and activity monitors, weight scales, blood pressure and glucose monitors, peak flow meters, and more. We have hundreds of connected web and mobile apps, many of which are built to capture personal observations using everything from simple manual check-ins to camera and audio captures.

But best of all --- we have an API and extensible data model that makes it incredibly easy for developers to add even more data to the mix, and to work with it holistically and efficiently. One query and data across domains comes back for correlation and pattern-searching. No database to worry about. Automatic integration of clinical data. SDKs available for all modern platforms. And a fully-functional test environment you can start using in five minutes. It’s pretty awesome.

Let’s be really clear about what this is. You now have one, universal, consistent API that you can use to work with your data from (let’s just take a sampling off the top of my head):