WebMD

AOL founder Steve Case has picked a dream team of big names with "interesting" pasts for his new start-up, Revolution Health. On the board are Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard; Franklin Raines, who was ousted from Fannie Mae; Steve Wiggins, the man who built and was later ousted from Oxford Health Plans; former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale; and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who's performance at the UN in 2003 may have prepared him well for the healthcare …

It has been an exciting week in healthcare. First, there was Lester Crawford's mysterious resignation from his position as FDA chairman. Then came the little story about Mr. Frist and his stake in HCA. As if those two weren't enough, we were then treated to a major health policy story, as bipartisan support grew for a temporary expansion of Medicaid for victims of Hurricane Katrina, a …

Shares of WebMD Health rose nicely yesterday following the company's IPO. The stock rose nearly 40 percent to $25 per share in the first day of trading and appears to be continuing its upward march today. The thinking on Wall Street is that WebMD Health, a specialist in consumer health information, is well-positioned to take advantage of the growing interest in consumer directed care. Meanwhile, the old WebMD is continuing along under the new name of Emdeon, providing web-based claims …

For many years health insurers have struggled (or refused) to represent the information they have about their members back in useful form to their members. In an era of online banking and airline reservations systems, health plans have been badly behind. Finally this trend may be changing, with WebMD Health, on an ASP basis, leading the provision of personal health records, personalized health information and tools and benefit information directly linked to members claims and service …

At the 4th Information Therapy conference in Park City, UT, the first two keynote speakers had different but consistent takes on the lack of available information for consumers and providers, and its negative impact. Patient advocate Susan Sheridan's son was not given a simple test and his jaundice turned into brain damage and the debilitating life-time condition, Kernicterus. She, by force of will, put a patient group together and changed the law in many states to get the $1 dollar …

> Despite parallels to the Vioxx study which damaged Merck, Pfizer has given the go ahead for the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to study Celebrex's potential value as a cancer treatment. Story

> WebMD Health Holdings (the website businesses which are being spun off from the newly renamed Emdeon) priced shares in its …

In its first major deal of the quarter, Cerner announced that it has signed a 10-year contract with the US Army to provide medical records software to 100 army hospitals and 400 clinics around the world. The Kansas City-based company said the deal is the largest laboratory technology deal it has yet signed. The Army said the deal could be worth $51 million over the next decade. Cerner stock hit a 52-week high of $79.73 on Thursday, although it's slightly lower now.

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Despite remarkably little uptake of consumer health records thus far, there's another player in the patient health record game. iHealthRecord officially launched yesterday, providing users with one-click access to a Web-based system for documenting their medical history. Access is free for patients; physicians and providers are expected to pay for the service.

iHealthRecord is from software company Medem, which has big-name backing with the support of the American Medical …