It’s been a really great year so far here at HealthVault HQ … we’ve been totally focused on turning all the experiences of our “incubation” years into a scalable, long-term business. That means expanding our presence worldwide, locking down a single, repeatable set of business terms, filling gaps and completing scenarios like emergency prep and weight management, and --- most importantly --- supporting and growing our relationships with solution providers like the one just-announced with Knowledge Anywhere.

It’s interesting how often I still have conversations with folks that don’t “get” the idea of a personal health platform and think HealthVault is limited to the experience we provide at healthvault.com. I suppose that says something about my communication skills, but I prefer to look elsewhere for an explanation. ;)

Let’s be clear here --- HealthVault alone is simply not that valuable. It’s a “platform,” which means that it provides services and functionality to other, more interesting applications that real people use and buy. Take the ADA’s Diabetes 24/7 application for instance. This great app, built by Get Real Consulting for the Association, helps people with a very specific task: track and manage diabetes and provide reports that can be used with caregivers to keep things under control.

But even such a cool app is just another silo without HealthVault underneath. We make the app far better by connecting it with the data and people that need to be part of real care. Just as a sample, the app benefits from:

• Connectivity with over 80 home monitoring devices to eliminate hand-entering of data.
• Sharing with family members and other caregivers so everyone can be part of the solution.
• A security- and privacy-enhanced place to store information, so that the ADA doesn’t have to worry about protecting sensitive health information.
• Clinical connectivity so that information from the application can be shared electronically with providers and other professional caregivers using their EMRs and other familiar tools.
• The ability to collaborate with other applications in the HealthVault ecosystem without having to rebuild data connectivity every time.
• … and much more …

It’s an awesome win-win … but for it to work, there have to be lots of folks out there who know how to use the HealthVault platform when building applications and connections. This means a critical part of the story is our growing ecosystem of third-party developers and integrators that make this magic happen. Need a turnkey solution to connect your Meditech EMR to HealthVault? Give Dell Healthcare a call. Want a great, flexible care management portal? Try Get Real Consulting. And a ton more …

Soooooo… that all leads me to be super-excited about the announcement that Knowledge Anywhere has started to offer HealthVault development and consulting services. These folks know their stuff, have a specialty around Epic integration, and have an impressive list of happy clients including:

• The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Hurley Medical Center
• Lee Memorial Health System
• The Mount Sinai Hospital
• Orange Regional Medical Center
• The Elliot Health System
• Children’s Hospital Colorado
• Children’s Medical Center of Dallas
• Fairview Health System
• Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
• Geisinger Health system
• Hawaii Pacific Health
• Kaiser Permanente
• Kelsey-Seybold Clinic
• Lancaster General Health
• Bon Secours Health System
• NorthShore University Health System

I can’t wait to see what cool stuff comes out of this new partnership. And hey, if you need a hand thinking through a project where HealthVault could play a role, let us know. We’re always happy to have those conversations and do some win-win-win matchmaking. Onward!