The Building Blocks of Personal Health Records

Publication Date: February 2008

Publisher: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Author(s): LLC Sujansky & Associates

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

There is a great deal of interest in exploring the potential of personal health records (PHR). Google was one of the latest organizations to throw its hat in the ring. Such efforts aim to move patient data—such as prescription history, medical condition information and allergy data—into an electronic medical profile to empower patients and provide them more control over their health care. But with a multitude of efforts to collaborate on the development of online heath records, what are the common functional building blocks for designing PHRs?

Project HealthDesign, a $4.4-million RWJF national program supported by the Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio and theCalifornia HealthCare Foundation, hopes to answer that question with a report recommending common platform components for PHRs, and invites feedback on the core services needed to support PHR applications. Developed by Sujansky & Associates, in collaboration with the Project HealthDesign grantee teams, the requirements are a key component of the program's vision to accelerate the development of new PHR applications and facility interoperability among them.

The requirements support functions common to many personal health applications: medication list management, calendaring, observations captured in the course of daily living and identity management. These requirements were developed through an in-depth process of needs assessment interviews and analysis of work performed by nine grantees in their design and prototyping efforts to date.

Project HealthDesign challenges health experts and technology designers to push the envelope in thinking about the transformative potential of PHRs. The project hopes to stimulate a broader discussion about the standardization and modularization of PHR platform services.