Looks like Microsoft is finally gearing up to promote AllOne Mobile's platform, which makes the company's PHR HealthVault available on mobile phones. To date the companies have worked together to bring the PHR mobile, but Microsoft has done little to promote the partnership, assumedly because AllOne Mobile isn't going to be the only vendor to take HealthVault mobile. Here's a quick blurb from the March edition of the HealthVault newsletter:
"AllOne Health has enabled HealthVault-connectivity for AllOne Mobile. With this security-enabled mobile phone application users can download health information from their health plan PHR and HealthVault record, and store that information on their mobile phones. Once downloaded, users can conveniently access and share aggregated health information with healthcare providers and family. The AllOne Mobile solution helps users better manage their own health and that of their families, anytime, anywhere."
Last week, Microsoft's Senior Director of Worldwide Health, Bill Crouse, MD, blogged about a recent gathering of about fifty Microsoft customers and partners to share visions on mHealth. The audience heard about mobile life sciences solutions from Crouse, AT&T Vice President, Abhi Ingle and Pfizer's Scott Bedrick. Crouse wrote that "all speakers agree on one thing" that "the cell phone has become an indispensable tool not only for business but for each and every one of us in our personal lives... we are only now beginning to uncover its full potential in health; in the management of chronic diseases, as a tool for accessing timely information, as an essential device for capturing information, as a way to collaborate across time and distance, as a means to interact in new ways with our patients, and as a platform for education and entertainment." That's a good summation of the mHealth opportunity.
"Physicians and other clinicians were among the first users of cell phone technology back in the days when airtime was pricey and devices were clunky and extraordinarily expensive," Crouse continued. "The reason for this early adoption despite the cost is clear. Communication is an essential component in clinical workflow. Clinicians are mobile workers, and the cell phone enabled both communication and mobility. But we have barely scratched the surface on the ways these devices and mobile solutions will play out in the future." Hear, hear.
Pushing the PHR to the mobile platform through solutions like AllOne Mobile's is certainly a deep scratch on the surface of mHealth. For more on Crouse's blog post, read the rest here.
For more on AllOne Mobile, revisit our interview with Frank Avignone, here.
