Private Health Records

With this ever changing world, one would suspect the storage of medical records would evolve too. Electronic medical records has been something people have been trying to perfect for a few years now. And with all of this effort, there is still some work to be done. Available today are Private Health Records or PHR, Electronic Medical Records or EMR and Electronic Health Records or EHR. Although, at first glance these would appear to be identical records, there are differences. In an attempt to have a single medical record that would allow limited access to necessary personnel, the EHR was developed. This is a medical record that contains demographics, insurance information and all accumulated medical history from every provider and facility that the patient has used.

In contrast, the EMR contains all of the pertinent information in regards to a patient. Included information in this record is the same as above with one exception. This record is only the information from one facility. In this instance, if the patient frequents more than one facility for medical care, they do not ‘talk’ to each other. The other type of records are the Private Health Records. These records are accumulated and updated by the patient themselves. They are able, through various companies online, create their own medical record. These records allow patients to add scans, test results and pictures if they chose.

The greatest difference between the three records maybe that the EMR and EHR are kept within a closed circuit system. Although many people have access to them, they are relatively secure. In comparison, the PHR is not secure. Private Health Records are stored through the Internet. So, even though many companies will assure their customer of the security, it is impossible for these to be completely secure. The patient is responsible for the safety and security of their PHR.

Sep 17 2008

You say Potato - Uncle Sam says EHR, EMR and PHR

Computers, Healthcare IT, Private Health Records

According to the  people at Software Advice earlier this year the NAHIT established definitions for EHR, EMR and PHR. Given their authority, and the Bush administration’s plan to build an interoperable health IT infrastructure, EHR has become the standard phrase to describe an electronic patient chart. However, the majority of physicians are still searching for an EMR, and software vendors haven’t renamed their products.

Software Advise wrote their article EHR vs EMR - What’s the Difference? to explain the difference between the two systems and help physicians understand what role the acronym should have in their purchase.

I don’t remember seeing this on any of the regular IT healthcare blogs but it’s really mute.  EMR is going to stick for sometime and I wonder if NAHIT only made things more complex by trying to pigeon-hole the definitions.

3 responses so far

Jun 21 2008

Google Health - Part 3

General, Google Health, Healthcare IT, Private Health Records

I heard from Google regarding the Aspirin vs. Plavix issue.  If you put in the full dose aspirin then the warning does show up.  As I said on the Google forum this is incorrect but I am not going to split hairs here this is not medical advise.

On to the next step, as it were.  I went to my pharmacy, which in my case is Target.  I decided to ask my pharmacist to get help to get my data into my Google Health record.

I just love what happened.  My pharmacist is a very careful person.  When I pickup medication for other members of my family she will often not discuss the other person’s health issues with me, this is as it should be.  I love picking up my daughter’s birth control medication, its like talking to a monk who’s taken a vow of silence.

I explained to the pharmacist that about Google Health and how I want to get Target’s cooperation in importing the prescription data into the PHR.  The reaction from the pharmacist was and I quote “Isn’t this against HIPAA regulations?”  I had to laugh, she knows that I am in the health care field and I explained that it was not.  She managed to get me the name of the manager further up the food chain in the pharmacy division.

So I make the calls and basically they had no interest in doing this.  Their first problem is that they don’t control the data, its a third party ISP.  They were willing to get me the name of the company but I don’t think I’ll have much luck as a single consumer.

I am going to switch gears and see if I can talk to my doctors and/or hospitals and see if I have any better luck.

6 responses so far

May 29 2008

Google Health - Part 2

General, Google Health, Private Health Records

So I loaded up all my medications with the correct dosage information. Next I went to the drug interaction tab and I came up with no interactions. Am I doing something wrong because I know that Plavix and Aspirin can interact. They even say so in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Plavix TV commercial
Here’s the Google Health Screen shot:

Google Health - Drug Interaction

This is an unhappy set of events. If I go to regular Google search I am presented with an number of regular news sources but also links that are ambulance chasers.

Here’s a CNN link from the first page of the SERPs:

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DI/00060.html

The Plavix and Aspirin combination can represent a problem but I would rather risk the occasional nose bleed then another coronary incident.

This section needs work.

Regards,
Jordan Glogau

No responses yet

May 26 2008

Google Health - Part 1

General, Google Health, Private Health Records

Now that Google Health is live I decided to give it a spin. As I said in a earlier post I don’t think much of these efforts but Google is a big name and maybe that alone will get PHR’s in the public eye. Well, its worth a try. I have used other PHR systems but I am going to approach this from scratch. I will try to keep track of my time and comment on the interface. I won’t do this all at once so it will be a number of posts. I will try to include screen grabs when I can .

Further, when I think I need data from other health organizations I will try to contact them and see if they want to join the party. Let’s see how deep the PHR rabbit hole really is!

So lets get started. I’ve decided to go right to medications. I am doing this because this is where my main concern is, drug interaction. I take a number of medications and I know that there is a risk because of the blood thinner that I take.

The first issue is, do you have the medications handy, or do you have a list that you keep with you. I have the latter, a list from my wallet.

Here’s the screen when your trying to pick out your medications.

Medication Capture Google Health

OK, if you don’t have this list you’re lost. The real disappointment came when I finished putting in all my medications. Then I went to the Drug Interaction section. When I went there I go zero results. So I went back and only then did I realize that I need to enter the drug dosage information. Why is this a separate step, in AllScript you don’t have this separated.

Medication Dosage - Google Health

So we have to go back and enter our dosage information. If you going to separate the two steps you need to inform users that all details are needed to get the interaction advice.

A small annoyance, there are an add and edit link for each medication. After trying the add button I realized it there if you take combinations of the same drug. How hard is it to explain this in plain English. I added a record and then had to delete it and “edit” it in the right place.

Medication Add or Edit - Google Health

This could be tough, but some medicines come in multiple doses and you may take a combination of two dosage levels. Maybe just label it as dosage 1, dosage 2.

OK, now I’ve entered all my medications. At this point I am ready to see the results of the Drug Interaction. I will cover this in Part 2. In the meantime I will talk to my pharmacy, Target, and see if they are going to work with Google Health. I know I have other medications that are not active that they have in their database. This should be interesting.

2 responses so far