Wal-Mart, Intel, Others To Create Massive Health Records Database

"As the cost of providing health care continues to rise, Applied Materials, BP America, Inc., Intel Corporation, Pitney Bowes, Inc. and Wal-Mart are funding an independent nonprofit institute to develop “Dossia,” a Web-based framework through which U.S. employees, dependents and retirees can maintain lifelong personal health records. “Dossia will empower individuals to manage their own health care, improve communications with their doctors, and ensure more complete and accurate information for health care providers than the current fragmented, paper-based system,” said JD Kleinke, chairman and CEO of the Omnimedix Institute, the non-profit organization with headquarters in Portland, Ore. that is developing Dossia. “With Dossia’s personal, private and portable personal health records, individuals will be able to maintain comprehensive, up-to-date histories for themselves and their families.” The unique Dossia framework gathers health information on behalf of the individual from various sources and stores it within secured databases. Dossia’s open architecture will support multiple personal health applications, allowing users to organize and summarize their information in ways that are most useful to them. Health records will be secure and private, accessible only by the individual or by others to whom they have granted permission. Records also will be portable, enabling individuals to continue using the records even if they change employers, health plans or doctors."

Reference

Xtreme Computing