[Person-ontology] Microsoft HealthVault

[Drummond Reed]

+1 to Jim's comments on MS HealthVault. (In case you may not be familiar with "+1", it's the standard way of indicating agreement on open source developer mailing lists. -1 is disagreement and 0 is neutral.)

In fact, I think this provides a good opportunity to answer the earlier question about, "How is this person-ontology effort different than FOAF or SIOC?"

The short answer is that what we're talking about here is not just a traditional domain ontology, but a living, breathing system -- a Wikipedia for ontology as it relates to people and information they need to share. I know that applying the Wikipedia model to ontology is not new - Dbpedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia) is starting to do that with Wikipedia content, and folksonomies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy) are another approach. But I think that what new Internet identity and data sharing projects/protocols like Higgins, XDI, and Identity Schemas bring to the table is the chance to finally weave ontology directly into the fabric of the emerging Internet identity layer.

If so, it may only be a matter of a year or so before a project like Microsoft HealthVault wouldn't dream of trying to create its own ontology, but would use and contribute to the person-ontology we're creating here.

=Drummond

> -----Original Message-----
> From: person-ontology-bounces at idcommons.net [mailto:person-ontology-
> bounces at idcommons.net] On Behalf Of Schoening, James R Mr CIV USA AMC
> Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 7:57 PM
> To: person-ontology at idcommons.net
> Subject: [Person-ontology] Microsoft HealthVault
>
> All,
>         Microsoft just announced and released their HealthVault service,
> to enable individuals to assemble and control their health information.
> See https://account.healthvault.com.
>
>         This is similar to my vision for the potential of Higgins, but
> with key differences.  Below are some of the HealthVault data elements.
>
>         Here are a few differences I suspect (after a quick review):
>
> 1. Microsoft stores people's data, period.  I suspect people will get
> locked into MS.  Higgins is open, so individuals can store data on their
> own computer or with any provider they choose.
>
> 2. I suspect this data model is based on a taxonomy at best.
>
> 3. Even the profile data looks overly simplistic to me.  For example, I
> have three phone numbers with rules for when to call me at which number.
> What does "City" mean?  I live in one town, but have a mailing address
> from another town.   I think we can do much better with Person-Ontology.
>
> 4. Can this HealthVault set be extended into specialty areas?  Who
> extends it, Microsoft or industry groups?  I believe Person-Ontology can
> be designed and released so industry and other groups can develop
> extensions.
>
> 5. This is limited to health information.  Person-ontology and Higgins
> will attempt to provide a base to cover all major areas of personal
> information. Of course, this will require specialty groups to develop
> each domain ontology.
>
> 6. I wonder if Microsoft would claim rights to this list of data
> elements, especially the list of medical categories.
>
>         These are just some initial cursory thoughts.
>
>         Note: I'll be away until Tuesday night.
>
> Jim Schoening
>
>  Here's the list of just some of the data elements from Microsoft
> HealthVault:
>
> Title
> Last Name
> Middle Name
> First Name
> Suffix
> E-mail Address
> Phone
> Street Address:
> City:
> State/Province:
> ZIP or Postal Code:
> Country/Region:
> Birthday:
> Gender:
> Ethnicity:
> Language:
>
> Categories of information that can be shared:
>
> Blood Glucose Measurement
> Microbiology Lab Test Result
> Weight Measurement
> Blood Pressure Measurement
> Spirometer Measurement
> Aerobic Exercise Session
> Condition
> Password Protected Package
> Aerobic Profile
> Personal Contact Information
> Height Measurement
> Asthma Inhaler
> Daily Dietary Intake
> Life Goal
> Cardiac Profile
> Device
> Immunization
> Continuity of Care Record
> Discharge Summary
> Insurance Plan
> Diabetic Profile
> Emotional State
> Emergency or Provider Contact
> Advance Directive
> Encounter
> Medical Problem
> Medication
> Healthcare Proxy
> Procedure
> Weekly Aerobic Exercise Goal
> Family History
> Radiology Lab Result
> Allergy
> Documents (File)
> Respiratory Profile
> Allergic Episode
> HbA1C
> Sleep Session
> Medical Annotation
> Insulin Injection
> Sleep Related Activity
> Application-Specific Information
> Insulin Injection Use
> Vital Signs
> Appointment
> Lab Test Result
> Weight Goal
> Asthma Inhaler Usage
> Web Resource (Link)
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