By the end of April 2009, Microsoft plans to wrap up the evolution of its HealthVault service. The software giant plans to introduce the HealthVault 0904 release in the company's production environment no later than April 29. According to a member of the HealthVault team, the 0904 release has already been made available in the Microsoft Pre Production Environment. The actual service itself will sport a number of enhancements, starting with the first page accompanied by a simplified login process.

“In this release, users who have not signed in to HealthVault before will see a simpler page that asks them to enter the e-mail address they want to use with HealthVault. If the user enters an address, we’ll check to see if it is already associated with a Live ID. If it is, we’ll show a Live ID signin page that should already be familiar to the user. If it’s not, we’ll show a page where the user can create a Live ID. Of course, users will still have the option to sign in using OpenID instead of Live ID,” the HealthVault team representative stated.

At the same time, Microsoft has made it easier for users interested in HealthVault to get a Windows Live ID, by keeping the sign-in actions on a single page. In addition to streamlining the tasks associated with logging in and building a new Live ID, HealthVault 0904 will also deliver greater reliability compared to its precursor, as well as improved caching. Support for Digital Signatures has also been expanded. Microsoft will now support not only Komodo, VeriSign and GeoTrust, but also Entrust certificates.

“In this release we are adding ability to have localized versions of Applications through our AddApplication and UpdateApplication methods. These methods are available to Master applications for application provisioning,” the HealthVault team member said. “We are adding a customizable Direct to Clinical Success message: Applications will now have the ability to submit a customized success message for the direct to clinical flow.”

Additional enhancements include tweaks to the signup process to support the addition of records even before application authorization, and a new, more consistent co-branding experience.