Mayo rolls out PHR with Microsoft platform

The Mayo Clinic has rolled out out a personal health records system using Microsoft's HealthVault PHR platform. And in a trick that could save it a whole lot of HIPAA hassles, the new PHR will not be connected to the Mayo's existing electronic health record system. Instead, the new PHR will be branded as the Mayo Clinic Health Manager. It won't connect to the Mayo enterprise clinical EMR system at all.

For the time being, privacy protections for these PHRs should should remain pretty loose. Since its data isn't connected to an EMR, and Microsoft hasn't signed the "business associate agreements" with Mayo, other types of PHR materials sidestep HIPAA requirements.

However, in the future, expect to see more tension over whether PHR vendors have to sign such agreements. Language in the recent stimulus bill seemed to indicate as much, but vendors are already arguing over what the law means and who will truly have to comply. Seems like the PHR privacy issue is far from dead.

To learn more about this issue:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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