At last month's FOSE conference in Washington, D.C., Microsoft presidentSteve Ballmer and other Microsoft officials described the benefits of aunified medical system for veterans. And it would put the patient, not splinteredmedical data, in control. Veterans who fall ill must call the facilities where their documentsare located and get them faxed to the facility where they are being treated. This takes time, costs money and delays medical care. But a secure Web site that includes a veteran's medical files could provideinformation swiftly.
Many unanswered questions remain.
Chief among them are security andprivacy concerns. And the idea still needs the blessing of Congress forfunding. Hundreds of vendors may want a piece of the action, too, something thatmight create interoperability problems as they develop their own softwareto store medical records. We really believe that, similar to the basic structure of the Internet,you really open the power of communications that way.