Archive for ‘Standards’

December 11th, 2007

Personal Health Record Standard

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Despite the presence of more than several hundred vendors of PHR products and also equal number of PHR products in the market today,there is no common standard in all of these products.This has created a significant barrier for widespread adoption of PHR products.Also without any common standard,PHR end up as islands of information.Compatibility with other PHRs and also with hospital based EMR system would enhance the benefits of Personal Health Record.

Now HL-7,a not-for-profit, ANSI accredited standards development organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services has come out with an initial draft forPHR standards,this will be implemented by 2008.

HL7’s PHR-S FM may be the first industry standard to specify functionality for PHR systems.

The draft could be found here by entering the term “PHR” on title bar of search.

What are the implications of HL-7 PHR-S FM for PHR vendors?

1.There will be common standardization of Personal Health Record products.

2.Compatibility between PHRs and EMRs will be improved.

3.”Interoperability” of PHR products which would enable Contunity of Care.

4.Enable easy population of data.

All these could come at a price,in that the cost of PHR products may raise significantly as conforming to these standards would escalate the cost of development of any new PHR product.

But for widespread adoption of PHR.education of consumers is the key step.

As it is one thing to develop a PHR and sell it to consumers but another to another to know when and how to use it.Health Consumers may be smart now,but they should also be aware of how to get maximum benefit out of Personal health record product.

CategoryConstructive Medicine, Electronic medical record, EMR, Medicine 2.0, PHR, Standards | CommentNo Comments »

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December 6th, 2007

Standards in Personal Health Record

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We are living in a Wonderfully Flawed World

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One the major barrier to widespread adoption of Personal Health Record by patients and physicains alike is the lack of interoperability and common standard.While this issue has been an ongoing subject of numerous debate,
now HL7 (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Washington-based America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work on portability standards for PHR among health insurance plans.

AHIP and BCBSA have developed an implementation guide (“Implementation Guide for the Personal Health Record Data Transfer Between Health Plans”) containing technical standards, a data dictionary and operating rules for the transfer of PHR data elements between health insurance plans. Use of the Implementation Guide by health plans allows individuals to move PHR data when their health coverage changes, in compliance with applicable state and federal privacy and security laws.

“Personal health records will serve as the foundation for connecting patients with providers, and offer consumers peace of mind,” said Karen Ignagni, President of AHIP. “We are pleased to be collaborating with the BCBSA to work hand in hand to create the best uniform application.”

Without portability of data,PHR would end up as islands of information without any significant benefit to users.Hopefully,this will encourage vendors of PHR application to move towards a common platform,which ultimately benefits the users of PHR products.


                
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CategoryElectronic medical record, EMR, Medicine 2.0, Personal Health Record, Personal Health Records, PHR, Standards | Comment1 Comment »

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