Personal Health Records to Improve Health Information Exchange and Patient Safety

The personal health record (PHR) is proposed as an innovative solution to the problems of fragmented communication and lack of interoperability among diverse electronic medical record (EMR) systems. It provides a single source (the patient’s PHR) for authentication and remote access of the health information data from all EMR systems. A voluntary survey was offered to selected patients, caregivers, and health providers of the Willmar, MN, PHR project to determine if a PHR was useful to these stakeholders, and if so, what aspects of a PHR would be most helpful in caring for patients. The survey responses revealed nearly universal interest by both patients and health providers in using the PHR regularly for accessing and exchanging health information, including medication and medical history reconciliation and patient education. The highest utilization would result from a community-based PHR implementation that was owned and controlled by the consumer and was portable among providers, plans, and employers.