AOL (NYSE: TWX) founder Steve Case plans to bring his consumer health venture RevolutionHealth.com out of testing on Thursday with a revamped site, according to the NYT. The test version went online in January; it drew 486,000 unique visitors in March, according to comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) Media Metrix. The site offers general wellness info but the real focus is on personal health records, giving consumers a place to assemble their medical information, prescription records and insurance payment claims. It’s not a slam dunk; other services like WebMD (NSDQ: WBMD) and insurers provide a similar service and, as Gartner analyst Wes Richel tells the Times, only a small percentage of people ever bother to look at their medical records when they’re all in one place.

Access to the site’s features will remain largely free and ad-supported. Though at some point, fee-based services such as mediation between consumers and health insurers will be offered. (As we previously reported, the site also plans to charge $100 annually for subscription services.) Case’s ambition for the health information portal is to create a brand as well known as Starbucks or Nike. So far, his Revolution Health Group, which he started two years after departing AOL in 2003, has backing from the likes of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Colin Powell. The company’s other medical ventures include a stake in the RediClinic chain of retail health clinics operating in some Wal-Marts, Walgreen’s and other stores around the country. Case has invested more than $100 million of his own money in setting up the website.

The revamped version is aimed primarily at women, who make up a larger portion of health website users. Features include a Mom Central page for women trying to juggle their own health, their children’s health and their elderly parents’ health all at the same time. So far, the main competition is WebMD, which has more than 40 million unique visitors a month. And there are a number of other established sites in the space, notably Yahoo Health and the NYTCO’s About.com Health. On the horizon: Google (NSDQ: GOOG), said to be working on an initiative that will allow users to be able to personalize to their related health information, and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), also moving into the health space.

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