PHRs from EHR Vendors: Beneficial to Patients?
A Consumer Perspective


Before anything else, let’s define our acronyms. EHR stands for Electronic Health Record. This is an electronic record of medical and health information that is created, maintained, and edited by authorized health professionals including general physicians, specialists, and labs. An EHR may be shared by more than one clinician or organization. A PHR is an electronic record of medical and health information that is created, maintained, and edited by an individual. It may be shared with healthcare providers, but ultimately the patient decides what information is shared with others.

The information in an EHR and PHR will obviously overlap, with the EHR containing more objective facts and the PHR recording both objective facts and subjective observations such as symptoms. Many EHRs are beginning to offer PHR features and functionality. Is this to the benefit of the patient?

In general, an EHR contains the information found in a patient chart: medication lists, test results, and conditions or problem lists. It also contains digital results of imaging studies and other tests so that medical practitioners can view x-rays and other studies via computer. An EHR can automatically generate prescriptions, flag drug interactions, allow digital communications with patients, support patients with educational information, offer online appointment scheduling, and offer statistical analyses for doctors. It is basically the patient’s chart in digital form.

A PHR generally contains a list of medications, allergies, chronic illnesses, family history, immunization records, test results, surgeries and procedures, and other information that may be pertinent to a patient’s health. This information is entered by the patient so it is likely to be subjective, and in some cases incomplete, if the patient does not have the exact lab results to record or images to upload. The only person who can add or edit information is the patient. The PHR is exclusively the patient’s to complete.

The question posed above was: Do PHRs offered by EHRs benefit the patient? Now that each type of health record has been clarified, perhaps we can better formulate an answer. Each type of health record contains similar information, so could a connection between the two benefit the patient?

Several EHR companies are offering PHRs. It is important to find out which EHR a patient’s doctor is utilizing because the information varies depending on the practitioner. For example, one hospital community that uses an Allscripts Patient Portal currently only uses features for requesting appointments and communicating securely with a healthcare professional.



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