Microsoft wins seat at health IT table
The deal means that hospital networks in the northeast will have to deal with Microsoft's health IT offering in their technical planning. The deal includes Microsoft's HealthVault Personal Health Record.
Among Caritas' competitors are Beth Israel Deaconess, whose innovative health It set-up run by GeekDoctor John Halamka has virtualized its health records using VMWare, and Partners Healthcare, which announced back in 2007 it would begin requiring using of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by its physicians.
The market Amalga is entering, in other words, is a hothouse of EHR adoption, and integrating with its neighbors should give Microsoft the knowledge it needs to interoperate with all types of hospital IT systems.