Pros: Dossia is secure web-based personal health record designed to offer lifelong PHRs to businesses for their members. Users may continue to utilize Dossia after retirement. Innovation is ongoing and will provide users with upgrades and new features accordingly.

Cons: Dossia is not available to the general public. It is available to employees (and their families and dependents) of Dossia foundation member organizations.

The Bottomline: Dossia is a free PHR available only to employees (and their families) of Dossia member organizations. The PHR is a lifelong tool; as members retire they are encouraged to continue to utilize the utility. Unfortunately, it is not available to the general public at this time.

Editor’s Rating:

Reviewed on May 5, 2011

Summary:
The Dossia Personally-Controlled Health Record is a non-public PHR offered to employees, family members, and dependents of the founding organizations of Dossia, including AT&T, Applied Materials, BP America, Inc., Cardinal Health, Intel Corporation, Ptiney Bowes, sanofi-aventis, and Wal-Mart.



Features:
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High Security
All information is password protected and secured by technology that is employed by multi-billion dollar corporations. Data is shared at the user’s discretion; no one can view any information without permission – including employers or insurance companies.

Technologically Advanced
Dossia encourages participating vendors to continually improve and provide innovations for members. Performance upgrades and new features will be added as time goes on.

Data from Multiple Sources
Access to healthcare records from doctors, pharmacies, labs, test results and more are all aggregated into one Dossia PHR so that all of an individual’s information is coordinated into one record. The PHR is digital and portable if printed or saved on a USB drive. This will help the patient have very complete records to help manage future health issues.

The program is HIPAA compliant and, with a user’s permission, will collect information from all sources and make it accessible from one application. Users choose who may access their PHR.

Recommended
Dossia has won support from the American Association of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unique
The unique quality that Dossia brings to the table is the capacity to aggregate information from multiple sources to create a lifelong medical record. The technology is being designed to avoid any incompatibilities in data sharing. The hope is that by offering this tool, members will decrease health care costs over time as they can more effectively manage their health.