HealthVault, a Microsoft service designed for both patients and healthcare professionals to store and share their health information in the Cloud, is being rolled out for the first time in an international hospital. Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand is not only the first internationally accredited hospital in Asia, but also the very first international hospital to adopt Microsoft HealthVault. Specifically, the Bangkok-based organization has debuted the rollout phase of a new service based on Microsoft’s healthcare Cloud app. Bumrungrad took advantage of the fact that it was already using Microsoft Amalga for its Hospital Information System, an aspect that streamlined the connection with HealthVault.

“Many Americans can’t and don’t want to wait for reform to come to them. They’re taking matters into their own hands, traveling for procedures such as a heart bypass or back operations,” noted Curtis Schroeder, group CEO of Bumrungrad. “At Bumrungrad, they can get excellent care at a fraction of the American cost. And with HealthVault, they can share their medical records with doctors on both sides of the ocean — things like medical history, lab results and procedure details. We see it as a great innovation supporting continuity of care.”

It is precisely for medical tourists that Bumrungrad International hospital embraced HealthVault. The new service from the Bangkok-based international hospital will enable patients from around the word leveraging its services, and especially those in the US, to easily access medical records independent of their actual location. According to estimates, in excess of 1 million Bumrungrad patients will be able to take advantage of the HealthVault-based online personal health application platform, starting with 2010. In this context, Microsoft HealthVault is nothing short of a health compass for medical tourists. No less than 45,000 American patients were treated at Bumrungrad in 2008 alone, Microsoft revealed.

“We believe empowering consumers with a copy of their personal health data and facilitating continuity of care among health care providers is critically important,” added Nate McLemore, general manager, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. “We’re pleased to be working with Bumrungrad, a leader in international medicine, to offer these capabilities to patients and providers.”