I believe Google will come up with advertising that is totally demand driven, that is to say consumer pull rather than push.

They are already well placed to take advantage of web tv, and have policies in place to limit the amount of visible targeted advertising appropriate to the web pages being displayed.

As Google seems to be a strongly collaborative company, we must hope and encourage them to stick to their principals in this respect.

I applaud MS on this project. This move is cutting edge. If handled correctly, it could be a win for all stakeholders across heathcare in the US. One thing MS should keep in mind is that while it seems their project’s initial and primary focus is consumer/patient driven, the healthcare payment industry focus (i.e. business to business commerce between provider and payer to pay claims) is huge and could gain traction much quicker than relying on patients to participate as a matter of first impression. MS should remember that protected health information (PHI), by federal regulation, is allowed to be widley and freely shared for purposes of “effecting payment or reimbursement” to from healthcare payers to healthcare providers. Providers and payers should welcome a secure and uniform platform through which they can easily share medical record and claim information to adjudicate the patient’s bill for services rendered. The information and documentation generated by commerce between payer and provider could very quickly populate the “vault” regardless of whether the patient chooses to access or share the medical record or claim information. Patients readily agree each day via admission and/or discharge documentation to share their PHI with any payer source for the purpose to effect payment of their claim per HIPAA regulations. MS needs to understand that every health care event generates an account receivable and attendant medical record information that payers require to review before payment to a provider or patient. MS can populate their vault and work with providers and payers to advertise to patients that the vault is already full of information that the patient can see (and share) if the so choose. Bottom line, providers and payers can easily populate the vault by placing this information therein which they are already sharing with the patients consent on a daily basis by transactions numbered in the millions each day…..

“I’d hate to see how personalized my web surfing would become in the future if companies like Microsoft started displaying ads for Heart medication after probing my database.”

This will never happen, HIPAA is cracking the whip hard on this one. First of all, what you’re worried about is illegal, and second of all it would require an entire team focused on the development of such a project, and quite frankly, Microsoft would never put themselves in this type of a risk.