Offered through WebMD, Verizon employees (not customers) will be offered a PHR called Verizon HealthZone PHR. With 900,000 employees, it creates a large user pool. However, it will be initially offered to only 40,000, still a sizable pilot group. It will be interesting to watch home many actually adopt it since it is employer-based. "Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg announced the Electronic Personal Health Records tool during a roundtable discussion on the shift toward a value-driven care system."
"The Electronic Personal Health Records program is voluntary and works this way:   After an employee  enrolls, health care information is imported and managed from various sources -- physicians, nurses, hospitals,  pharmacies, labs, as well as information entered by the  employee, including family history." Additional, it works independent of the employee health plan. One has to wonder if it will be tied to consumer-directed healthcare and to what extent it will be wireless-enabled.

Technorati: PHRs