The Patient Safety Screening Tool is part of the Microsoft Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint--a vendor-agnostic attempt to address healthcare integration and solutions--which the company launched at last year's HIMSS show.

In an effort to promote similar innovation and interoperability, Microsoft this year is offering $3 million to developers and solution providers using Microsoft HealthVault to drive industry development of online health-improvement tools.

Microsoft is soliciting proposals in the following areas:

· Primary Prevention Applications – To help caregivers prevent or delay onset of disease by reinforcing healthy lifestyle choices and addressing risks such as hypertension and weight.

· Secondary Prevention Applications – To assist patients and caregivers in measuring things such as blood pressure, lipid profile components ( LDL and HDL cholesterol and triglycerides), diet and nutrition, weight, smoking, and activity level in order to prevent or delay morbidity and acute care.

· Acute Care Applications – Targets acute care scenarios in order to track progress, improve communication and share data between healthcare silos in order to give caregivers better insight into a patient's health history.

· Juvenile Disease Management Applications – Focuses on age- appropriate tools to help children, parents and caregivers understand and manage these specialized conditions.

· Women's Health Management Applications - Creates online tools or services that help manage womens’ complex health issues within the context of lifestyle and family.

· Community and Social Health Applications – Develops applications for health in areas such as collaboration, communication and the use of social relationships to improve care.

According to Microsoft officials, proposals will be reviewed by a panel of healthcare industry leaders chosen by the Microsoft Health Solutions Group. Entrants will be evaluated on their potential to “significantly advance the state of health in one or more areas of focus and demonstrate the potential for expansion into a large-scale program.” The total fund pool is $3 million, with a maximum of $500,000 awarded for any individual proposal. The program is open to U.S. based accredited degree-granting colleges and universities as well non-profit research or health institutions. Private-sector organizations may partner with eligible non-profits to qualify for the grant. Proposals will be accepted from Feb. 25 through May 9, 2008. Notification of the grant winners will be made July 1, 2008.

The HealthVault software development kit and further guidance on how to develop HealthVault applications can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/healthvault.

In addition to the patient tools and the development grant funds, Microsoft announced a renewed partnership with SAP America through which the two venders will collaborate on healthcare administrative tools.

For the healthcare market, SAP and Microsoft will continue to fine tune Duet, the joint product from SAP and Microsoft that delivers SAP business processes and information within the more familiar the familiar Microsoft Office environment. “Health organizations stand to gain a great deal by streamlining processes for their managers with Duet, especially when it comes to people and suppliers,” officials said.