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A personal health record (PHR) is a repository of information from multiple contributors (eg, patient, family, guardians, physicians, and other health care professionals) regarding the health of an individual. The development of electronic PHRs presents new opportunities and challenges to the practice of pediatrics. This policy statement provides recommendations for actions that pediatricians can take to support the development and use of PHRs for children. Pediatric health care professionals must become actively involved in developing and adopting PHRs and PHR systems. The American Academy of Pediatrics supports development of: educational programs for families and clinicians on effective and efficient use of PHRs;incentives to facilitate PHR use and maintenance; andchild- and adolescent-friendly standards for PHR content, portability, security, and privacy. Properly designed PHR systems for pediatric care can empower patients. PHRs can improve access to health information, improve coordination of preventive health and health maintenance activities, and support emergency and disaster management activities. PHRs provide support for the medical home for all children, including those with special health care needs and those in foster care. PHRs can also provide information to serve as the basis for pediatric quality improvement efforts. For PHRs to be adopted sufficiently to realize these benefits, we must determine how best to support their development and adoption. Privacy and security issues, especially with regard to children and adolescents, must be addressed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports development and universal implementation of a comprehensive electronic infrastructure to support pediatric information functions of the medical home. These functions include (1) timely and continuous management and tracking of health data and services over a patient's lifetime for all providers, patients, families, and guardians, (2) comprehensive organization and secure transfer of health data during patient-care transitions between providers, institutions, and practices, (3) establishment and maintenance of central coordination of a patient's health information among multiple repositories (including personal health records and information exchanges), (4) translation of evidence into actionable clinical decision support, and (5) reuse of archived clinical data for continuous quality improvement. The AAP supports universal, secure, and vendor-neutral portability of health information for all patients contained within the medical home across all care settings (ambulatory practices, inpatient settings, emergency departments, pharmacies, consultants, support service providers, and therapists) for multiple purposes including direct care, personal health records, public health, and registries. The AAP also supports financial incentives that promote the development of information tools that meet the needs of pediatric workflows and that appropriately recognize the added value of medical homes to pediatric care. Pediatrics 2011;127:978-982 INTRODUCTION The Medical Home, the Strategic Plan of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Health Information ManagementThe medical home 1 model is the central organizing principle for health care management for all children, including those with special health care needs. 2 The ideal medical home (1) translates evidence into highquality pediatric care that is measurable, (2) provides coordinated pediatric primary and specialty care for all children, and (3) sustains pediatric practice through fair payment, cost-efficiency, and recognition of the value of pediatric primary care. The medical home model supports the strategic plan of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 3 by unifying evidence-based practice and the business of pediatric care through patient/family-provider relationships that are based on trust and effective, reliable information management. Medical Home Information FunctionsThe medical home must centralize and support the primary care relationship between the patient/family and health care provider through

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