Connecting for Health: A Public-Private Collaboration

Source: Markle Foundation, Connecting for Health: A Public-Private Collaboration, 1 July 2003.

Optimal characteristics of PHRs. As innovators have begun to implement technologies that addressthe four IOM design rules, they have identifiedfive key attributes of an optimal PHR.

1. Lifelong and comprehensive. These two items have major policy implications. To be a lifelong record,the technical standards and design used in developing both EHRand PHR products must support information exchange and portability.In our fragmented health care system, it is often up to patientsand their primary care providers to consolidate informationfrom the various participants in their care. A PHR can helppatients and their families cope with the disjointed way theirinformation is being handled.
2. Accessible from any place at any time.This is particularly vital to glean the widely understood benefitsof emergency room (ER) access to a new patient’s healthhistory.
   
3. Provide health management toolsthat assist patients in understanding the information containedin their record along with recommendations for improving theirhealth.
4. Private and secure. The PHR system must also be transparent—in terms of both information sources and information access.
   
5. Allow patients to control who has access to the information in their PHR. In a 2000 survey of online Americans, 78 percent wanted "to beable to make choices about how their personal health informationis used."