PHR: Pretty Half-hearted Reception

Despite the abundance of personal health record systems, patients have been slow to adopt them. But new technology and an expanded scope may change this.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. Dec. 3, 2007.

One doesn't have to look hard to find a personal health record system. A 2006 study by the Markle Foundation found that more than 200 PHR systems are available, and new products are continually being announced. But studies also show that availability is not translating into use, with only about 5% of all patients using PHRs.

Vendors have had a hard time selling the idea of a personal medical diary to healthy consumers who see their doctors maybe once or twice a year. In addition to privacy and security concerns, patients are staying away because the PHRs on the market aren't doing much to entice them, analysts say. The industry also has failed to come up with a convincing argument for why doctors should encourage their use.

But the technology is changing, along with the scope, to make PHRs more attractive. Vendors are reaching out to health plans and employers in hopes of encouraging PHR use through incentives. And expanded data sets make the records more useful to physicians.

PHRs have been welcomed by their original target audience: patients in active treatment and their caregivers, said Peter Waegemann, executive director of the Medical Records Institute, which researches electronic medical record usage and adoption.

But even among early adopters, privacy and security were major concerns, said Cynthia Solomon, founder of Sonoma-Calif.-based FollowMe. One of the first known Internet-based PHRs, FollowMe was launched in 2000 by Solomon, who was caring for her chronically ill son.