Collecting data about observations of daily living through personal health records can give physicians and patients insights unattainable from information captured only from clinical encounters, according to a new study.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and California HealthCare Foundation in 2006 launched Project HealthDesign, an effort help consumers better use information within PHRs. Now researchers, including nine teams that built prototypes of technologies to support personal health records, have published a report of findings. Among them:
* A common technology platform for PHR applications accelerates development, supports interoperability and improves security. At the start of the Project HealthDesign, platforms such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault did not exist.
* Users' ethical, legal and social concerns about sharing PHR information are real but surmountable. Consumers understand, for instance, that there are some privacy trade-offs for being able to access their health information easily, but the benefits include being better consumers of health care.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation this spring announced it was seeking proposals for $2.4 million in grant funding to take the next step in Project HealthDesign. Grantees will assess the potential of using PHRs to record observations of daily living, such as information on sleep, diet, exercise, mood and medication adherence. Proposals were due in early June.
The initial report, "Project HealthDesign: Rethinking the Power and Potential of Personal Health Records," is available at projecthealthdesign.org/overview-phr.
--Joseph Goedert
JUN 19, 2009 3:18pm ET
Study: PHRs Give Docs New Insights
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