Privacy framework for personal health records developed

Major PHR vendors sign on to the AMA-supported standards.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. July 14, 2008.

Dossia, Microsoft, Intuit, Google and WebMD have joined forces with others in the health care sector to endorse a set of practices for both the technology and the use of personal health records.

A PHR framework was developed by the Markle Foundation-operated Connecting for Health, a public-private collaboration that included several groups, including the American Medical Association. The announcement on June 25 came the same day Markle released a new survey that looked at consumer attitudes toward PHRs.

The framework was developed over the course of 18 months and includes 14 specific technology and policy approaches for vendors and for consumers. Markle said the framework will help vendors create systems that easily can exchange and protect patient data, while also providing consumers with guidelines on how to choose and maintain a PHR system.

The Markle survey found that 79% of the public believes that PHRs would provide major benefits to individuals in managing their health and 46.5% of the public expressed an interest in having a PHR. Nearly 57% of the public express concern over the privacy and security of their data and more than 90% felt that their expressed consent should be required for each use of their information.