a attended a corporate training course last month where the facilitator said she didn't date men from our company because - as a human resources person - she had access to everyone's personnel file, and she felt she wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to peek and see who the rising stars were . . .

setting aside the mind boggling admission that she selects her social partners based on their promotion potential, i think the same "lure" would apply to online medical records.

would a single person automatically rule out someone because they had a heart murmur? really bad eyesight? family history of cancer? had seen a psyciatrist once for depression? an abortion (that could be a plus, or a minus, depending on if your approach was for breeding, or moralistic/religoius).

there was even a movie about this - "gattaca" - where your social and career future were constrained by your genetic potential at birth.

i prefer to reject someone (or be rejected by a future mate) based on aspects other than than my vision exam or cancer operation . ..but that's just me.

you can put yours online if you want . .. not me

I work in the field and access EMR. In an enclosed setting it works great. I'd rather carry my doctor's name in my wallet. Google and MS are a little too curious for my tastes. There is nothing that is free. Data is worth money and they own the data. The insurance companies may know about you but they would prefer a standardized database with 200 million medical records in it. Like credit scores, you would be assigned a health score that would follow you from job to job and directly impact health insurance cost and availability. Remember, the insurance companies are there to deny coverage. I can't see any upside. They don't need personalized data to determine risk models, just lots of data. Later, your individualized data is compared to the risk models. MS is probably going to sell subscriptions to the data. It will be your responsibility to make sure the data is accurate, like credit data.

I read that credit scores are less predictive of mortgage re-payment risk. Perhaps another theory out the window. Meanwhile credit scores are used for everything. Profiling people is tricky.

Microsoft is just as innovative in online medical records as they are in computer operating systems.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, which operates a "world class" healthcare system--partly thanks to its electronical medical record--has an acclaimed system already in use by thousands of veterans. It's called MyHealth-e-Vet, and allows them to access up-to-date information on medical and health topics, request appointments and prescription refills, see their medical record, and even upload non-VA-provided medical information such as test results and prescriptions obtained outside of the VA system.

If you're a veteran, it's already available to you.