AMA partnering with Microsoft on physician Web portal

The American Medical Association on June 11 announced Microsoft as its latest partner on the online physician portal it is developing.

As a result of the partnership, physicians will be able to access a patient's Microsoft HealthVault account, with that patient's permission, through the AMA physician portal.

The portal itself, being designed by Covisint, a division of Compuware, is set to allow one-stop access for technical systems, such as electronic medical records and e-prescribing, and clinical resources physicians need to run a practice. The first partnership announced was with DrFirst, a Rockville, Md.-based e-prescribing vendor.

"The use of electronic medical records, and health information technology overall, holds great promise for improving patient care and increasing practice efficiency," said AMA President J. James Rohack, MD, in a statement. "The addition of Microsoft's HealthVault on our AMA portal will enable patients using HealthVault to share more comprehensive health information with their physicians. Having ready access to patient information can help physicians make treatment decisions and reduce the time spent gathering this information, resulting in more face-to-face time with patients."

Joseph M. Heyman, MD, immediate past chair of the AMA Board of Trustees, said the Association will vet potential partners to find the "best of breed" systems that will be available for download and use through the portal.

The Web-based portal will also offer a personalized clinical library for users and will have a direct messaging capability through which physicians can exchange clinical notes, referrals and charts with other physician users.

The portal, which has been in development for more than a year, is being tested by members of the Michigan State Medical Society. It is expected to launch nationwide next year.

"With the pending launch of [its] portal, the AMA is addressing a demand within the medical community for tools that enable physicians to join the move toward online health in a seamless, intuitive way," said David Cerino, general manager of the Consumer Health Solutions Group at Microsoft, in a statement.

HealthVault, launched in 2007, is a patient-controlled platform on which patients can store a host of health and wellness information. Microsoft has partnered with a range of health IT developers to make other systems interoperable with HealthVault.