The latest release of HealthVault now has a layout optimized for quick access on a mobile device and lots of opportunities for mobile developers to create apps for it.

If you've not come across it (and you might not have done as it is currently geographically restricted to the US and a few other places) Microsoft HealthVault is a personal health platform that lets its users gather, store and share health information online.

Its website also offers HealthVault applications - from a pedometer and a life-style coach to a tool that helps manage hypertension and an online registry for blood and kidney donations. The growing list of apps covers anything to do with any type of medical condition.

The latest release "changes the face of the platform pretty radically", according to Sean Nolan on the Family Health Guy blog.

He writes:

It’s become completely obvious that mobile devices are rapidly taking over as the primary way that folks communicate and compute in their daily lives. This makes complete sense for health, where virtually all meaningful activity happens away from our laptops: office visits, emergencies, workouts, daily glucose testing, sleeping, you name it.

So now if you access HealthVault from a mobile device you'll find a layout designed for quick access during a health encounter in which mobile support is built on SODA (Survey On Demand Application) from Techneos.

From the developer's point of view there's a whole new raft of mobile apps just waiting to be developed. 

Client libraries for creating HealthVault applications are going to be available for all the popular phone platforms and the SDK and samples for Windows Phone 7 are already available at CodePlex.

More information

HealthVault Developer Center

Download the HealthVault SDK

Microsoft HealthVault Windows Phone 7 Library