Thursday, September 13, 2007

myPHR ,a guide to PHRs by (AHIMA) American Health Information Management Association

This a an excellent resource for researching PHR options.SV

Individuals can create their own PHR, or may be offered one by a variety of sources, such as a healthcare provider, insurer, employer or a commercial supplier of PHRs. Each supplier has different policies and practices regarding how they may use data they store for the individual. Study the policies and procedures carefully to make sure you understand how your personal health information will be used and protected. Policies to look for include privacy and security; the ability of the individual, or those they authorize, to access their information; and control over accessibility by others. If the PHR contains the same information that the doctor has seen, it has more usefulness for tracking purposes than information from insurance forms. For example, insurance claims information may list the diagnosis or medication but not the details (for example, actual blood pressure reading or dose of the medication taken).

A wide range of products are currently available to help you create your own personal health record (PHR). Below you can search a list of options, by format and cost, and decide for yourself which works best for you.

myPHR
Posted by Salvatore Volpe MD FAAP FACP CHCQM at 5:24 AM
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1 comment:

Mad Scientist said...

My response to the above posts is that not all PHRs are created equally. Security concerns are valid when you are talking about a PHR from your insurance or employer.

They take on even more significance when you begin talking about letting Microsoft and Google hold this information for you. I would even go farther to say that I believe that your personal health data is a new form of currency for the 21st Century and must be treated accordingly.

When you begin talking about PHRs as a stand alone product like the small number of ones actually being created for consumers, what most are selling you is an empty box, like a bank account with no money in it. They leave all the hard work on the consumer to gather the information from less than cooperative providers.

What a real Health 2.0 solution involves is a more than just a pretty box, it is one that contains valuable data regardless of what the consumer contributes. I am the founder and CEO of a 21st Century medical lab in the Midwest called MyMedLab. Our company has created a unique solution for today's informed consumers.

MyMedLab is a result of combining the power of the Internet with more than a decade’s worth of experience privately educating consumer about their health. Our mission has been removing the barriers consumers encounter when attempting to get more involved in their health. We have seen first hand the frustration they encounter when health care “protects” them from their own information.

Our recently redesigned web site at www.mymedlab.com provides consumers direct access to the same diagnostic lab tests once only available to doctors. It allows them to choose from over 20 different Wellness Profiles based specifically on their age, sex and family history.

Once they have chosen the appropriate test package and purchased it online, they visit one of over 2000 participating collection sites across the country at their convenience, without an appointment.

Their test result, when complete, are reviewed by our network physician in their home state and automatically uploaded into their own MyMedLab Personal Health Record (PHR). From inside their private PHR, they can access detailed information about their results including links to the National Library of Medicine.

Initial results create the “baseline data” for future comparison and allow them to track changes in their health over time. Our testing becomes a valuable tool for not only those looking to find potential health problems early but as a way for those with chronic disease like Diabetes and Heart Disease to get directly involved in their care.

The MyMedLab PHR allows consumers to easily share this information, if they chose, with their family doctor by printing them out before they next appointment or faxing their results directly from inside their PHR. Test results belong ONLY to the consumer and NEVER become part of their permanent record UNLESS they provide them. NO THIRD PARTY HAS ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.

David Clymer, CEO
MyMedLab

3:48 AM

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