"What does this mean for HealthVault? The 'buzz' online ranges wildly, but the real and simple answer is: nothing," Sean Nolan, chief architect for Microsoft's Health Solutions Group, Sunday.
He pointed to some advancements to show Microsoft's commitment to the service. It recently made HealthVault accessible from and released a software development kit for third parties to develop mobile applications for the service.
It also started to let users such as X-rays and scans to their files, and it now lets from government health systems.
But some observers wondered if Microsoft will continue that pace of innovation after losing a big competitor. and could decide to reassign engineers to other projects, John Moore, an analyst at Chilmark Research, wrote in a blog post. "It's not like HealthVault has been a screaming success in the market," he wrote.
Microsoft didn't respond to a question Monday afternoon about how many active users HealthVault has.
Still, the closure of Google Health could give Microsoft a boost. In a rare show of solidarity, Nolan thanked Google for drawing attention to the benefits of such services and said the two companies have been working together to make it easier for Google Health customers to transfer their data to HealthVault.
In about a week, Google is expected to offer a way for customers to transfer their data directly to HealthVault, Nolan said. At the moment they have to download the data to a computer first and then upload it.
Microsoft also reached out to developers building applications for Google Health. "If your application integrates with Google by sending and retrieving CCR documents, you'll find that converting it to work with HealthVault should be pretty painless," Nolan wrote. Microsoft and Google use the Continuity of Care Record standard for data storage, making it easier for customers to move their data between services.
The IDG News Service