This just in, Microsoft’s HealthVault announced a partnership with AT&T and Covisint to enable healthcare data exchange across a highly distributed network.  While I have not had a chance to really dig into this announcement, it does appear, at least on the surface, to be quite an interesting partnership.

One of the most interesting aspects to this announcement is Covisint.  For those who may not remember the  dot-com hey-days of the late nineties, Covisint  was originally formed by the Big Three automakers with the purpose of creating a common architecture for e-Procurement and other supply chain enhancing functions.  Covisint never really did take-off, despite massive spending by the Big Three and Tier One suppliers.  Big problem came up when the automakers discovered that many of their pricing, contracts, and materials information were actually very proprietary and thus not suited for Covisint.  That left Covisint with commodity type products to attend to and there were simply not enough at sufficient margins to sustain the model.

Maybe their venture into healthcare will be more promising.  Covisint certainly has the secure data exchange angle well-covered.  Look to the AT&T/Covisint deal in Tennessee to understand more of where this may be going.

Will look into it further and possibly do a more in-depth report if warranted.  For