The Personal Health Record Market Starts to Shake Out

The following article appeared a few days ago.

Fed panel tips hat to Microsoft, Google, Dossia for advances in PHR use

By Diana Manos, Senior Editor 07/31/08

Microsoft, Google and Dossia have played a key role in advancing the use of personal health records, according to members of the American Health Information Community.

At a Tuesday AHIC meeting, members of the federal advisory panel hailed these three utility service models as "leading innovators," responsible for a major surge in the use of PHRs.

PHRs are a very dynamic market," said Nancy Davenport-Ennis, chairman of the AHIC Consumer Empowerment Workgroup."Today there are more than 200 solutions, some through independent systems, some through providers, employers and consumer-controlled groups. This is a great step forward from when AHIC started 23 meetings ago."

John Moore of Chilmark Research, a presenter at AHIC's meeting, said PHRs are used to control behavioral change in patients and lower healthcare costs. But obstacles remain – doctors are skeptical about their accuracy, and portability is "all over the map."

Moore said the utility service models, such as those provided by Dossia, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, allow consumers to stay firmly in control of their records, and portability has been demonstrated.

"These groups are doing the heavy lifting that other groups can't do now," he said. "Adoption potential is high because the value is high."

Many more details here:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9659

This seems to me to be adding onto the comments being made by a range of commentators that the concept of a physician held EHR is now morphing into or being enhanced by the patient increasingly taking control of their own information.

It seems to me virtually inevitable that over the next few years having a personal health record – independent of your doctor but having some input from them often – will become totally mainstream and as common as using electronic banking – especially for those with chronic health problems they need to manage.

Wait and see!

David.