Personal Health Records
What they do
Personal health records (PHRs) are much like electronic health records (EHRs) except that they are managed and populated by your patients. Potentially, PHRs could allow providers to view:
- Patient-documented glucose levels, food diaries, heart rate and blood pressure readings
- Detailed health histories
- Non-prescription medication lists
“Being able to have your own electronic copies and share them as you need to with your doctors is a first step in truly enabling people to engage in their health care.”
—Carol Diamond, MD, MPH, managing director at Markle
Who is using it
Although the federal government has advocated for every patient to have a PHR, these applications have yet to flood the market since it is unclear how these records will interface with other health IT applications.
Things to consider
There are interoperability issues with these systems that are unresolved. Although there are functional PHRs on the market today, it’s currently unclear how patient-generated PHRs will interact with physician practices’ EHR systems, how patient information will be secured and how physicians will access these records.
