Why I Chose Microsoft HealthVault

I chose to base my Health 2.0 experiment primarily on Microsoft HealthVault because it allows me to take ownership of my health data (as much as currently possible) and it's free. HealthVault doesn't really do much (at least not in obvious ways), but it provides a critical service that is easy to take for granted.

It allows me to store and transfer my information between HealthVault-compatible programs. I will be checking out as many of these applications as I can to give people a feel for what they might want to do with their health data.

HealthVault is one of those funny tools where you sign up for it and then you don't know what to do with it. It only took me a few minutes to create the account. In terms of personal data, I entered very little about myself (I think it may have been my birth date). This is what I looked at when I created my account in August 2009:

Hmmm. Okay. Now what? I went back later after I realized I needed to use some related applications to make it "work". After I checked out a few of the applications, it started looking a little more interesting:

It also started making more sense. I entered the amount of miles I had ridden my bicycle that week into an application called Route Tracker. In addition to importing the numbers I entered back into HealthVault, it showed me how far I had progressed on my virtual trip:

To learn more about what I am doing and why I am doing it, check out my health journey page.