Walgreens offers pharmacy patients access to secure prescription history through Microsoft HealthVault

DEERFIELD, Ill. Walgreens pharmacy patients now have the ability to securely download their prescription history from Walgreens.com to a personal Microsoft HealthVault record, the drug store chain announced.

The new service allows patients the convenience of linking their Walgreens prescription information to other health and medical records for easy management and the ability to share a complete profile with other healthcare providers.

Walgreens' agreement to join Microsoft HealthVault, a personal health application platform that allows users to store and share their health information, was announced this past summer.

Millions of registered Walgreens.com users already are accessing their prescription history for convenient refills, tax purposes or personal use. Patients who enroll in this new feature also will have daily updates to their prescription data accessible via a personal HealthVault record.

“We're pleased to be part of the Microsoft HealthVault network," said Don Huonker, Walgreens SVP healthcare innovation. “This partnership supports our efforts to promote stronger collaboration among patients and their pharmacists, physicians and other healthcare providers. Any tool that can help enhance a patient’s interactions with multiple providers stands an excellent chance for improving medical outcomes while lowering healthcare costs.”

In order to link prescription data to an individual HealthVault record, Walgreens pharmacy customers must have an authenticated pharmacy account on Walgreens.com. Registered users then easily can enroll with HealthVault directly from the Walgreens Web site.

“HealthVault was designed to allow people to engage in and take more control over their health, in partnership with their physicians,” said David Cerino, general manager for the Consumer Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. “This collaboration with Walgreens is especially valuable to people managing multiple medications for themselves or a family member. By combining prescription details with an individual’s broader health history, we are enabling users and their healthcare providers to develop deeper insights that can be used to develop effective ongoing health management plans.”