John Sharp is an IT Manager for a major medical center in Northeast Ohio. Areas of expertise include: ehealth, personal health records, Web 2.0 technologies, social media and project management. He is active in the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society and the American Medical Informatics Association. The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author.
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Posts Tagged ‘PHRs’
Project Health Design Conference video available
September 19, 2008
“Design Teams Unveil Innovative PHR Applications that Help People Take Charge of Their Health. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-sponsored project demonstrates how a new vision for personal health records can transform the way people engage in health care.”
Next-Generation PHRs
September 17, 2008
The Fall is certainly the season for conferences. Besides the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, there will be a conference sponsored by Project Health Design on this topic which begins tomorrow, Sept. 17th in Washington, DC. Some major players will present their models including representatives from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Johnson & Johnson and the eHealth Initiative.
One quote from the program: “Project HealthDesign teams demonstrate that their applications can link PHRs with a range of technologies people use every day – cell phones, digital assistants and others. People will use new ways to interact with technologies – speech, gestures and even device-to-device connections.” Exciting stuff.
I hope that proceedings, audio or video will be available in the near future since I will not be able to attend either conference this year.
Shameless Self Promotion
July 2, 2008
Once in a while you have to promote yourself. Well, in this case HIMSS has done it for me. I am pleased to receive the Spirit of HIMSS Award. Nice article about me appears today in their HIMSS Weekly Insider.
Not often does one get such acknowledgment for volunteer work but HIMSS finds ways to do this on a regular basis as they are dependent on many devoted volunteers to make the organization a success. I am pleased to be part of that process. I am in good company for this award.
PHR Task Force Appointed
June 13, 2008
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has established a new task force focused on PHRs. It is an interesting mix of members – Paul Tang (AMIA and PAMF), Missy Krasner (Google Health), Holly Miller (HIMSS and University Hospitals Cleveland), some significant appointments from consumer groups and government agencies including the VA. It is interesting to review the Introduction slides on the site which include the methods for reviewing products on criteria such as, functionality, security and interoperability.
Will look forward to the progress of this group.
Top Web Programmer Receives His Due in Time Magazine
June 12, 2008
It is not often that the guys and gals working behind the scenes doing the hard core programming on PHRs and other healthcare applications get their due. This time Bob Lemon, my friend and long time programmer at the Cleveland Clinic gets first paragraph mention in an article in Time Magazine titled, “Medical Mouse Practice.” Bob is responsible for much of the custom programming behind the eCleveland Clinic websites including MyChart. The article on EHRs talks about the 700 people like Bob who support the infrastructure which makes the EHR, PHR and ehealth tools possible. Bob also can take credit for the Google Walk For Good gadget.
Future of PHRs
May 6, 2008
The editor of Health Data Management has written an editorial piece on “PHRs: Where Are We Headed?” Because of a variety of products and uneven adoption, he wonders “whether PHRs ultimately will prove to be a passing fad or a ubiquitous technology.” He does note that PHRs are probably most effective for the chronically ill who will use them regularly to manage their conditions. He discusses extensively the privacy issue and the fact that many PHRs are not provided by HIPAA covered entities including Google and Microsoft. He quotes several leaders in the field including Holly Miller, MD of University Hospitals of Cleveland and the chair of HIMSS PHR committee on the use of tethered PHRs and the need for an interoperable model that allows patients to pull information from multiple providers.
The article certainly covers the confusing state of PHRs well but lacks a concluding recommendation. Maybe its difficult to make a recommendation or point a direction with some much activity and so little market consolidation or even consolidation of opinion. Let’s hope some of this is sorted out soon so that consumers, providers and employers can reap more of the promise of PHRs.
PHRs Make Medicine Less Efficient?
April 29, 2008
A posting on the Wall Street Journal Health blog quotes Steve Lieber of HIMSS as saying that PHRs may be less trusted by doctors and therefore slow down care, such as emergency or urgent care. The example given is having a PHR on a thumb drive – how does the physician know that the information, some of which could be life-threatening such as allergies, is reliable.
This is another argument for some kind of certification of PHRs and also providing a way to show the source of information in a PHR – is it from a provider, entered by the patient, claims information or something else.
PHRs and Patient Privacy
April 3, 2008
In an interview on iHealthbeat, some of the leaders in PHRs talk about the need for higher standards of privacy for PHRs. The comments are from:
- John Halamka has lots to say – see his blog post from HIMSS in February
- David Lansky notes 18 issues which the Markle Foundation would post in the near future
- Mark Leavitt sees the need for a national dialog in the next few years
- Deborah Peel – all products should have an external audit
This brief but provocative audio report illustrates some of the controversies in PHRs which need to be sorted out in order to gain more general acceptance and adoption.
Dossia will go into use this year
March 19, 2008
The Dossia electronic health records consortium has announced that it will begin to roll out the PHR to its corporate sponsors this year. After some well-publicized struggles, it plans to publish an API for the system as a way to invite health care providers to interface with the product. Part of the plan is to allow users to compare costs and medical-outcome histories at different hospitals based on its members medical history thus reducing medical costs. It is a bold plan and in light of recent announcements from Google and Microsoft, perhaps overshadowed before it gets off the ground.
Google Health Partnership with the Cleveland Clinic
February 22, 2008
In a joint announcement today, Google and the Cleveland Clinic have launched what is being called a pilot program with the Clinic’s MyChart PHR users to connect to Google Health. On the Official Google Blog, some of the technical aspects are noted such as the GData protocol and the AuthSub interface to create what is being called a Continuity of Care Record. On the Cleveland Clinic side, it is seen as a way to push the national dialogue on electronic medical records and support national access, consumer empowerment and 24/7 accessibility/portability. The pilot will be offered on an invitation only basis to 10,000 MyChart users, a good start. Looking forward to seeing this expand in the next few months.
he bottom line issue is will consumers trust Google to store their medical records? My guess is the there is a 50/50 split on this – those who think it is adequately secure and those who are suspicious or fearful.
