The Microsoft HealthVault Fund has increased from $3 million to $4.5 million to give more substantial awards for the winners of the online health applications contest. This contest encourages the creation of solutions that address health issues such as childhood obesity, diabetes management, medication reconciliation and health management. The judges represent leaders from the health field, including Adam Bosworth, Newt Gingrich, Mark Liponis, M.D., Valerie Montgomery Rice, M.D., Leslie Nowralk, Mark Pierson M.D., and Brent Ridge, M.D. The winners will be revealed at the Microsoft HealthVault Solutions Conference which will be held from June 9 to June 10 in Bellevue, Wash.

Do you remember the game you played when you were kids? The game wherein you had to save only 5 ? 10 people (placed inside the boat) out of, say, 20 (depending on the rules of the game), and lay off the others who are ?worthless?, all of which have special cases?

Doctors in Chicago are pretty much doing the same right now. A group of medical professionals, together with some prominent people in the academe, have come up with a list of who won't join the boat if ever something like that will happen. They included in their list the elderly, victims of trauma, patients who have had 3rd degree burns and those who are mentally challenged. They actually did this list so that all hospitals will adopt the same roster of patients.

A lot of people consider ?health is wealth? but David Williams of the Health Business Blog thinks otherwise: he thinks that preventing illnesses is more costly than getting sick. His points of view indeed are radical as it avoids the traditional take on health care. He deeply relied on Washington Post's article that basically has the same context, and has cited his quantitative sources as well to prove his point of view.

Bob Coffield, a health care lawyer himself, does not agree with Williams as he said that people with healthy systems will have little problems in the future.

Are you a drug store regular? If you are, then probably you'll be more than happy to know that you don't need to line up in your local store anymore just to buy your daily doses?you can do it online. Also, if you take legend drugs that require rigid prescriptions, then perhaps you'll be more than too to know that you don't need to go to the doctor and ask for the drugs?once again, you can do it online.

This is known as e-prescribing. Normally, legend drugs are harder to get since wrong doses (or wrong drugs, for that matter) can lead to some fatal repercussions. But, legend drug prescriptions have now been made more accessible to the public since it can be done online. It doesn't mean though, that you can just get these things just like how you obtain over the counter drugs; it's basically the same process (you have to have a specialist) but the transaction is done online.

Cleveland Clinic patients can put their medical profiles on the internet (Google's database) so that their medical history will be available for search via Google Health.

A certain Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum questioned the process since this concerns the privacy of the individuals who will join the test run.

It is but important to note that the putting up of medical profiles on Google Health is on a voluntary basis.