Prognosis is dicey for new Microsoft health record site

"We are very close," spokeswoman Linda Carre said.

"We want functionality to help patients manage their care, chronic diseases and to make more informed decisions with their physicians and their families."

Big health plans like UnitedHealth, which operates PacifiCare, and WellPoint Inc., which operates Blue Cross of California, have offered Web-based personal health records for a couple of years. They believe they have a leg up on vendors outside the healthcare industry because they preload each enrollee's database with information derived from claims forms.

UnitedHealth also makes its personal health records platform available for free to the general public without preloaded data.

WellPoint's My Health Record is available to nearly 35 million enrollees nationwide.

Some health plans allow physicians to add information to personal health records, and feature tools such as alerts to news about certain conditions and self-administered risk assessment tests.

UnitedHealth's Georgiou said electronic personal health records allowed physicians to more efficiently and accurately diagnose and prescribe treatment for patients. Specialists, who often don't have access to a patient's primary paper record, can be hampered if they must rely on a patient's often foggy memories of diagnoses, test results and medication use.

One limitation of personal health records maintained by health plans is that they can't follow a consumer when he or she switches from one insurer to another. The industry recognizes the problem and is working on it, insiders say.

Microsoft also launched HealthVault Search, a medical search engine available free to all users, as well as a site where consumers could find and purchase products and services offered by partners, such as Polar Watch, which makes fitness and exercise accessories.

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lisa.girion@latimes.com