IBM, Google Health and a consortium of medical device makers and other companies announced today that they have created a software platform that will allow medical data from at-home devices like glucose meters and blood pressure monitors to be sent automatically to Google Health or other Personal Health Records systems online. It's a broad reaching software platform that will bring data portability and medical records interoperability in direct conflict with a huge industry entrenched in siloed data.

If you think that "data portability" and standards for an open web hold a lot of promise to fuel innovation in social networking, just imagine what a secure, standards-based, data landscape could enable in health care.

While the Obama administration is looking to pump billions of dollars into modernizing health care, and health care records in particular, industry thought leaders are urging the US government to advance that funding with requirements concerning open data standards and interoperability. The consortium's software platform being announced today could be an example of the kind of technology we'll be seeing a lot more of, soon.