Personal Health Records: Definitions, Benefits, and Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Adoption

Abstract

Recently there has been a remarkable upsurge in activity surrounding the adoption of personal health record (PHR) systems for patients and consumers. The biomedical literature does not yet adequately describe the potential capabilities and utility of PHR systems. In addition, the lack of a proven business case for widespread deployment hinders PHR adoption. In a 2005 working symposium, the American Medical Informatics Association's College of Medical Informatics discussed the issues surrounding personal health record systems and developed recommendations for PHR-promoting activities. Personal health record systems are more than just static repositories for patient data; they combine data, knowledge, and software tools, which help patients to become active participants in their own care. When PHRs are integrated with electronic health record systems, they provide greater benefits than would stand-alone systems for consumers. This paper summarizes the College Symposium discussions on PHR systems and provides definitions, system characteristics, technical architectures, benefits, barriers to adoption, and strategies for increasing adoption.

Modeling the adoption of personal health record (PHR) among individual: the effect of health-care technology self-efficacy and gender concern

“…Keeping track of own health information might have a significant effect on health management, especially for those who have been suffering from chronic disease [4]. For example, individuals who have been suffering from diabetes would understand the association between food consumption, medication, and workout in a better way by tracking their health condition on a regular basis.…”

Family attitudes towards an electronic personal health record in a long term care facility

“…[21,27,28] Additional EPHR concerns were highlighted that were linked to the sensitive nature of personal healthcare information, which have been identified in several other studies. [13,23,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] One third of family members in the current study reported concerns associated with confidentiality and security when considering the implementation of an EPHR. For example, concerns about security of personal information were found at the top of a list of concerns linked with an EPHR in a study conducted by the Markle Foundation (2006).…”

“…[51] Within the international literature EPHR access remains a complex issue, however several studies offer useful recommendations that can be applied. [38,41,44,[51][52][53][54][55] Halamka, Mandl and Tang (2008) closely examined these EPHR access challenges. [41] Upon examining three case studies, they determined that there were some critical questions, similar to those examined within the current study, which should be examined when considering the adoption of an EPHR.…”

Innovaties voor zelfmanagement: ontwikkelen van diensten en technologie voor duurzame gezondheidszorg

“…6 Een Persoonlijk Gezondheidsdossier (PGD) maakt het digitaal zoeken, invoeren, organiseren en delen van gezondheidsgegevens door de patiënt mogelijk en kan helpen bij het ontwikkelen van dit inzicht. 7 Daarnaast kan een PGD informatie aanbieden over gezondheid en de organisatie van de zorgverlening en toegang bieden tot medische gegevens in het Elektronische Patiënten Dossier (EPD), dat wordt gebruikt door de zorgverlener, zodat de patiënt medische gegevens kan opvragen. Ten slotte kan de behandelend arts, wanneer de patiënt daar toestemming voor geeft, bij diagnosestelling en monitoring gebruik maken van gegevens die de patiënt zelf heeft vastgelegd.…”