Called My Health Info, the Microsoft (MSFT) offering, which includes a range of widgets and other Web tools, wades into an area that many are attempting to crack, including Google (GOOG).

The service, which will be located on MSN’s health site, will use Microsoft’s HealthVault platform and Silverlight technology, taking the company’s effort to create a platform for storage of health information into the mainstream.

Due to issues of privacy and security, consumers have been slow to warm to loading up their personal health information on the Web.

Microsoft said users can also “research medical concerns, read the latest health news, gain guidance from medical experts, learn about nutrition, and monitor conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.”

Google has a similar beta product called Google Health, and there are others. In fact, the former head of Google Health, Adam Bosworth, has a similar start-up called Keas.

All efforts are trying to get consumers to embrace and feel comfortable in putting their health information online and offer easier tools to do that.

Here’s a screen shot of My Health Info:

Here’s the Microsoft press release on the service:

MSN Introduces Online Tools to Help People Make Smarter Health and Lifestyle Decisions

From swine flu info to symptom checkers, MSN My Health Info includes a broad range of widgets and tools to attract health-minded consumers.

REDMOND, Wash.–Oct. 1, 2009–Today, MSN released the beta of My Health Info, a new online service that helps people manage their health information on the Web. My Health Info is a unique service that offers people a variety of tools and widgets to upload, organize and monitor health information stored in their personal Microsoft HealthVault accounts. The new service allows people to research medical concerns, read the latest health news, gain guidance from medical experts, learn about nutrition, and monitor conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
In addition, MSN is launching a specialized swine flu information center today on the MSN Health & Fitness home page (http://health.msn.com), spotlighting the virus that is currently top of mind for people. MSN works with trusted consumer health information providers such as Harvard Medical School and the MayoClinic.com to keep people informed and armed with data to help them prevent contracting the virus, assess for risk factors, find out where to get vaccinations in their local neighborhood when they become available, and more.

My Health Info delivers features designed for busy parents, adults who are managing the health concerns of aging parents, and people managing chronic conditions and multiple medications. Because the data is stored in Microsoft HealthVault, people can access their information via the Web whenever they need it and share it across multiple connected health applications. My Health Info will allow consumers to do the following:

Customize their page with tools such as allergy, medicine and blood pressure trackers, a lab results bank, body mass index calculators, vaccination information and more

Use information from personal health devices such as heart-rate monitors and pedometers

Access profiles of multiple family members at one time, allowing caregivers to more easily manage not only their information, but their family’s as well

Stay informed by receiving the latest in health news from sources they trust

“People care deeply about credible, timely and comprehensive information about health topics. MSN My Health Info will provide an exceptional selection of resources, tools and information available from a variety of sources in one convenient location,” said Scott Moore, U.S. executive producer, MSN. “We are committed to delighting our customers with information, services and tools that keep them informed and simplify their lives.”

Consumers are increasingly looking for online solutions that help them take better control of their health decisions and their families’ information, and that connect them to the broader health ecosystem in which they interact. The My Health Info service enables MSN to offer a timely service to its users, which will be continually updated to help ensure that consumers are offered relevant tools. The service is connected with Microsoft HealthVault, which stores consumer health information in a controlled and privacy-enhanced environment, while enabling consumers to easily collect and transfer their data across the health system for a more holistic and better quality healthcare experience. The My Health Info site is powered by Microsoft Silverlight technology to deliver a rich, interactive Web experience.

“As consumers are increasingly being asked to manage more of their health and wellness, they are looking for solutions that help them navigate an overwhelming amount of information, enabling them to take control of their personal health data,” said David Cerino, general manager of consumer health in Microsoft Health Solutions Group. “Building on the power of HealthVault, My Health Info demonstrates how we are continuing to provide consumers with the trusted and relevant tools they need to make more informed decisions in support of their health and the health of their families.”

The ubiquitous puppet interviewer (not) Shel Israel–who BoomTown has definitively determined is powered by the hand of the very funny Loren Feldman of 1938 Media–came to ATD HQ (aka, the cottage behind my house) yesterday for a lovely chat.

In our interview, I revealed that I was indeed the actress who played Princess Leia Organa Solo of Alderaan in “Star Wars” and also, given that the California Supreme Court has recently approved gay marriages, my upcoming nuptials with a certain tech blogger I have written about.

In all seriousness, I really like Feldman’s video work, although it is definitely strongly rendered.

Why? Because it is just the kind of innovative original material that is a key part of creating a whole new genre online.

His use of puppets is clever, but he also does more thoughtful, though still humorous, video essays as himself, which I also think are unique and bracing (that is a polite way of saying he does not hold back much).

Here’s my interview, along with another Israel puppet report on the MicroYooHoo deal and then another of Feldman’s on Google Health’s debut below it:

Kara and Shel

Shel on MicroYooHoo

Feldman on Google Health

Today the search sovereign announced a pilot program with the Cleveland Clinic that will enable the health-care organization’s patients to store their health records in their Google Accounts. The clinic plans to enroll up to 10,000 patients in the program, which will allow them to securely port their medical records to their Google profiles, where they can be more easily managed and shared with doctors, labs and the like.

Of course, by making such records easier to share with medical providers, Google may be making them easier to “share” with less well-intentioned entities. Health insurance carriers. Potential employers. Online marketers. The government.

Google, too.

As the World Privacy Forum pointed out yesterday, companies like Google are not governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA. “Don’t assume your medical records are protected no matter where they are: HIPAA privacy protections generally do not follow the health-care files,” the WPF warned. “HIPAA’s protections generally do not ‘travel’ with or follow a medical record that is disclosed to a third party outside the health-care treatment and payment system. … After you have disclosed your health care information to a PHR (Personal Health Records) outside the privacy protections of the health care system (HIPAA), your information can be used or redisclosed by the PHR in ways that would not be permitted for the same information if held by your doctor or health plan. Depending on the applicable privacy policy, health records outside of HIPAA can potentially be bought and sold, shared with merchants, and even disclosed to employers.”

Today the search sovereign announced a pilot program with the Cleveland Clinic that will enable the health-care organization’s patients to store their health records in their Google Accounts. The clinic plans to enroll up to 10,000 patients in the program, which will allow them to securely port their medical records to their Google profiles, where they can be more easily managed and shared with doctors, labs and the like.

Of course, by making such records easier to share with medical providers, Google may be making them easier to “share” with less well-intentioned entities. Health insurance carriers. Potential employers. Online marketers. The government.

Google, too.

As the World Privacy Forum pointed out yesterday, companies like Google are not governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA. “Don’t assume your medical records are protected no matter where they are: HIPAA privacy protections generally do not follow the health-care files,” the WPF warned. “HIPAA’s protections generally do not ‘travel’ with or follow a medical record that is disclosed to a third party outside the health-care treatment and payment system. … After you have disclosed your health care information to a PHR (Personal Health Records) outside the privacy protections of the health care system (HIPAA), your information can be used or redisclosed by the PHR in ways that would not be permitted for the same information if held by your doctor or health plan. Depending on the applicable privacy policy, health records outside of HIPAA can potentially be bought and sold, shared with merchants, and even disclosed to employers.”

It is Google’s vision that these two core capabilities–reliable, unambiguous, computable medical data and safe systems for trust and authentication and controlled access–will dovetail with the consumer needs for discovery about everything in their health arena. As this rolls out and consumers truly can discover what is the state of the art and what they should know about their treatments, where they are being treated, how they are being treated and how they will manage their diseases or recovery, this consumer awareness will lead to far greater consumer control, far better health data and, inevitably, to a very different health world than the current one.”

–Former Google VP Adam Bosworth, Google Health architect

Google’s mission, as you’ve likely heard, is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. And let’s face it: in what area of our lives is the world’s information more disorganized, inaccessible and useless than health care?

It’s nice to hear, then, that Google’s long-expected health initiative is set to go live in early 2008. Noting the incredible rate at which the health industry generates data (two billion X-rays per year, 200 petabytes of data), Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, said Google is developing a prototype online platform that will organize it. “If you look at health care, there’s already a huge user need, people are already using Google more than any other tool on the Web to find health information,” Mayer said. “And the health-care industry generates a huge amount of information every year. It’s a natural core competency for us, to understand how to organize all that data.”

Beyond that, Mayer had little else to offer but a schtick-in-need-of-a-laugh-track “Top 10 List of Things You Might See From Google Health.” Among them, Google paternity search, Viagra spam for Gmail users who truly need it, and an “I’m feeling yucky” button.

It is Google’s vision that these two core capabilities–reliable, unambiguous, computable medical data and safe systems for trust and authentication and controlled access–will dovetail with the consumer needs for discovery about everything in their health arena. As this rolls out and consumers truly can discover what is the state of the art and what they should know about their treatments, where they are being treated, how they are being treated and how they will manage their diseases or recovery, this consumer awareness will lead to far greater consumer control, far better health data and, inevitably, to a very different health world than the current one.”

–Former Google VP Adam Bosworth, Google Health architect

Google’s mission, as you’ve likely heard, is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. And let’s face it: in what area of our lives is the world’s information more disorganized, inaccessible and useless than health care?

It’s nice to hear, then, that Google’s long-expected health initiative is set to go live in early 2008. Noting the incredible rate at which the health industry generates data (two billion X-rays per year, 200 petabytes of data), Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, said Google is developing a prototype online platform that will organize it. “If you look at health care, there’s already a huge user need, people are already using Google more than any other tool on the Web to find health information,” Mayer said. “And the health-care industry generates a huge amount of information every year. It’s a natural core competency for us, to understand how to organize all that data.”

Beyond that, Mayer had little else to offer but a schtick-in-need-of-a-laugh-track “Top 10 List of Things You Might See From Google Health.” Among them, Google paternity search, Viagra spam for Gmail users who truly need it, and an “I’m feeling yucky” button.