How to take control of your health by taking control of your health data

  • Article

It’s nearly spring – a time of rebirth and renewal. Spring is a great time to clean house and start fresh, to take charge and create healthy new habits.

But here’s the thing about fresh starts: They don’t last unless you build in a little accountability. That’s why there’s been a recent surge in the popularity of personal health monitoring tools like pedometers, smart scales and heart-rate monitors. There’s also been a wave of apps looking to help you track your health – and even gamify it by making it social.

These trends are really encouraging. Monitoring your fitness is a great first step to taking control of your health. Being able to see your health data over time helps you spot trends and consult with your doctor more effectively. Gamification can even make it fun.

But these solutions bring their own problems. You need to be able to manage data from many sources, such as apps, devices and your doctor. You need to be able to access the data quickly and easily from anywhere. You need to know that it’s being stored securely.

The answer is pull all your data into one place and store it in the cloud. And that’s just what Microsoft HealthVault does. Think of it as a kind of digital safe you can use to store all kinds of health data, while retaining total control over it.

Here are just some of the things you can do with HealthVault:

  • Track your fitness and nutrition data all in one place to help manage your weight
  • Keep your health records all in one place to prepare for doctor visits or emergencies
  • Organise your family’s health information – from immunisation records to allergies

The information you choose to place in your HealthVault account lives in the cloud. It’s secure, but it’s also accessible by you at any time, all in one place. You’ll never have to ask your doctor to fax over a record once you’ve stored it with HealthVault. You can also import data from dozens of other popular health and fitness apps. This makes it easy to track your:

  • Exercise
  • Diet
  • Weight
  • Blood pressure
  • Blood sugar
  • Sleep
  • Lab results
  • Medical images
  • Allergies
  • And more!

You’ll always have control of your data. If you want it to keep it all private, you can. If you want to share select pieces of information with specific people, such as your doctor, you can. Or if you want to share a piece of information – like achieving a weight loss or fitness goals – with your whole social circle, that’s fine too. It’s your data, after all.

HealthVault works with many of the most popular health and fitness apps and devices. You can download a HealthVault app for all the major mobile operating systems.

Want to see how HealthVault could change the way you manage your health? Check out this video below and visit the HealthVault site to learn more.