SAN FRANCISCO — June 18, 2008 — Today at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Institute 2008, American Well Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to introduce an integrated consumer health solution that brings together American Well’s Online Healthcare Marketplace and Microsoft HealthVault, Microsoft’s online consumer health platform. The integrated solution will allow consumers to use their health information to interact live, online and on-demand with physicians from their home or office.
The Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii, plans to be the first health plan in the nation to offer the integrated solution to all Hawaii residents. It is slated to become available during the upcoming open enrollment period.
“At the heart of this strategic collaboration is the understanding that personal health information becomes truly meaningful when consumers and providers can use it in the process of actual care,” said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft.
Microsoft’s HealthVault platform allows people to collect, store and manage personal health information and share it with physicians, family members and other trusted third parties. Consumers can store information from multiple sources including provider and hospital record systems, home monitoring devices, and patient entries. American Well’s Online Healthcare Marketplace enables live communication between a consumer and healthcare provider. By adding HealthVault, consumers would be able to collect and provide health information for advised, coordinated care.
“This innovative solution promises to advance both the quality of care and quality of service HMSA brings to our members and our community” said Michael Gold, chief operating officer of HMSA.
“Convenient, immediate and affordable online care in people’s homes is becoming a reality in 2008,” said Ido Schoenberg, M.D., chief executive officer of American Well. “With HealthVault, we can offer better data-enriched communication, device connectivity, access and portability to health plan members and nonmembers.”
The integrated solution will allow consumers to use their health information from HealthVault to drive online consultations with providers on the American Well system. In Hawaii, credentialed physicians who are already part of the HMSA network will be able to make themselves available, at their discretion, for online and phone consultations with plan members as well as other consumers. This on-demand interaction between consumers and providers will be under advisement of consumers’ care coordinator, namely their primary care physician.
About American Well
American Well has created a new healthcare marketplace where consumers and physicians can come together online to acquire and provide convenient and immediate healthcare services.
American Well is committed to supporting health plans in meeting consumer and employer demand for affordable, efficient and immediate access to quality care. For more information, please visit www.americanwell.com.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.
