It's Time to Start Referring to PHRs as PHPs -- Personal Health Platforms
Posted Oct 05 2009 10:02pm
John Moore, who blogs over at Chilmark Research, has become uncomfortable with the term Personal Health Record (PHR) and all that it connotes (see: Time to Kill the PHR Term: Part 1; Time to Kill the PHR Term: Part 2 ).
I tend to agree with him. Below is an excerpt from Part 1 of his two
notes about this topic that explains his line of reasoning in this
matter:
The term [PHR] is a hold-over from the physician-centric term EMR and thereby firmly attached to that conceptual framework.
But does the average consumer really need to adopt an EMR architectural
construct for their PHR? Unlikely. The consumer needs their own unique
and self-empowering “system” to more effectively manage their health
and interact with the healthcare establishment.
A Personal Health Record [implies] just that, a record, a file cabinet of dumb data.
How useful is that? Well, some have found it useful, to say manage
their medications or children’s immunization records but it is an
extremely small percentage of the population.... In fact...we find
that of that 3.5% of PHR users, a significant majority are not using
simple PHRs but more complex systems or platforms that allow a user to
not only view their medical records, but leverage their data, typically
in an automated fashion, to advise them (making that data actionable),
drive transactional processes to simplify their interaction with the
healthcare system and provide guidance....
What
is working and seeing adoption at fairly high rates are Personal Health
Platforms (PHPs) that leverage a consumer’s health data, be it claims,
labs, demographics,...to take a given action. There are also those
such as Kaiser’s or Group Health’s that also combine numerous
transactional processes ([appointment] scheduling, Rx refills,
eConsults,...) that consumers/members also find extremely valuable.
John makes two key arguments to justify the adoption of a new term for the personal health record, which he would like to rename as the personal health platform(PHP). The
first is the need to differentiate the consumer product from hospital
and physician office EMRs. The second is the need to develop a
consumer-controlled "system" incorporating various functions such as
the ability to interact with the "healthcare establishment." One such
desirable function is the opportunity to schedule office and hospital
appointments. I would add two additional ideas of my own driving the
idea of a consumer-controlled platform:
The goals of hospitals and physicians diverge from that of consumers in one key area -- the former are interested in disease management and the latter in maintaining wellness and avoiding disease, whenever possible. One of the major goals of a PHP should then be the support of wellness.
Hospitals and physicians are often motivated to control electronic
health records because they view them as proprietary to them. On the
other hand, data portability and easy access to electronic health data
are important for healthcare consumers because they frequently move to
other cities and change providers. Having consumer-controlled records
and PHP vendors that share this philosophy is a step in the right
direction.
John Moore, who blogs over at Chilmark Research, has become uncomfortable with the term Personal Health Record (PHR) and all that it connotes (see: Time to Kill the PHR Term: Part 1; Time to Kill the PHR Term: Part 2 ). I tend to agree with him. Below is an excerpt from Part 1 of his two notes about this topic that explains his line of reasoning in this matter:
The term [PHR] is a hold-over from the physician-centric term EMR and thereby firmly attached to that conceptual framework. But does the average consumer really need to adopt an EMR architectural construct for their PHR? Unlikely. The consumer needs their own unique and self-empowering “system” to more effectively manage their health and interact with the healthcare establishment.
A Personal Health Record [implies] just that, a record, a file cabinet of dumb data. How useful is that? Well, some have found it useful, to say manage their medications or children’s immunization records but it is an extremely small percentage of the population.... In fact...we find that of that 3.5% of PHR users, a significant majority are not using simple PHRs but more complex systems or platforms that allow a user to not only view their medical records, but leverage their data, typically in an automated fashion, to advise them (making that data actionable), drive transactional processes to simplify their interaction with the healthcare system and provide guidance....
What is working and seeing adoption at fairly high rates are Personal Health Platforms (PHPs) that leverage a consumer’s health data, be it claims, labs, demographics,...to take a given action. There are also those such as Kaiser’s or Group Health’s that also combine numerous transactional processes ([appointment] scheduling, Rx refills, eConsults,...) that consumers/members also find extremely valuable.
John makes two key arguments to justify the adoption of a new term for the personal health record, which he would like to rename as the personal health platform(PHP). The first is the need to differentiate the consumer product from hospital and physician office EMRs. The second is the need to develop a consumer-controlled "system" incorporating various functions such as the ability to interact with the "healthcare establishment." One such desirable function is the opportunity to schedule office and hospital appointments. I would add two additional ideas of my own driving the idea of a consumer-controlled platform: