Personal Health Record

The Personal Health Record (PHR) is a tool that you can use to collect, track and share past and current information about your health or the health of someone in your care.  A PHR is controlled and managed by you.

Experts recommend that individuals gather information and maintain a personal health record. 

What is the current state of PHRs today?

The WSJ reported previously that personal health records could make care less efficient. Privacy issues have yet to be addressed. Some folks just won’t trust PHRs till their concerns are addressed. Yet the article also pointed out that…

“there are potential benefits to the approach. Many trips to the emergency room would go much more smoothly if the patient or a family member could direct the ER staff to a record that lists a patient’s allergies and current meds.”

PHRs could also complement medical records kept by providers. Technology leaders Google and Microsoft have launched PHR products.

As the focus increases on healthcare and health information technology in the coming year, we should hear more as the U.S. economic stimulus proposal includes more than $20B for healthcare information technology. The federal HIT Policy Committee has approved revised recommendations of a workgroup for an initial definition of "meaningful use" of electronic health records systems. The revised recommendations also call for giving all patients access to personal health records populated in real-time in 2013, two years earlier than previously proposed.