News of another valuable contribution from the RWJ Foundation arrived a few days ago.
New Frontiers in Personal Health Records A Report Out from Project HealthDesign and Forum on Next-Generation PHRs
19-09-08
On September 17th, Project HealthDesign hosted more than 200 guests for a day long event that showcased personal health record (PHR) applications created by program’s nine multidisciplinary grantee teams from across the United States. In addition to highlighting what Project HealthDesign teams have learned in the process of developing these PHR tools, the forum featured panels and discussions with leading health IT pioneers, policymakers and industry experts.
A technical team headed by Walter Sujansky of Sujansky & Associates LLC, also introduced a set of functional requirements and technical specifications that allow different PHR applications to securely share medical and other information, with the consumer controlling who has access to what information.
Project HealthDesign is a $5 million national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) with additional funding from the California Healthcare Foundation that is revolutionizing the purpose and potential of electronic PHRs. Each team created applications that help move the perception of PHRs from static repositories of health information to dynamic, tailored applications that allow people to easily and actively manage their health as they go about their daily lives. The project also ensured that these PHR tools can readily share common technical functions and operate on a common technology platform.
To read the event press release visit (link to release posted in the news archives section located under resources. The release is attached for posting)
To view Project HealthDesign grantee project information and visual stories visit http://www.projecthealthdesign.org/projects
View a webcast of New Frontiers in Personal Health Records: A Report Out from Project HealthDesign and Forum on Next-Generation PHRs at http://www.rwjf.org/goto/healthdesign2008 (live September 21) or here:
http://www.rwjf.org/pioneer/product.jsp?id=34528
To read event blog posts from the Project HealthDesign blog visit http://projecthealthdesign.typepad.com/
Link to site.
http://www.projecthealthdesign.org/news/217129
The work being done is also given coverage in Health Data Management.
PHR Researchers Unveil Prototypes
September 17, 2008
Nine research teams have developed prototypes of technologies to support personal health records following 18 months of research. The prototypes range from a medication management system to help children with cystic fibrosis manage their disease to a “conversational assistant” that helps people with congestive heart failure manage their health from home.
The effort is supported by Project HealthDesign, a $5 million program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Over the next several months, the Project HealthDesign teams will publish details about their findings and attempt to extend the use of their applications to the clinical practices connected to their institutions. The projects include:
* A team at Vanderbilt University designed a PHR application to help children with cystic fibrosis play a larger role in self-care. Team members developed a device that can be incorporated into a stuffed animal or cell phone to work with the PHR to help children take the right medications at the right times, alert parents and caregivers if doses are missed and manage refills.
* The University of Rochester team designed a prototype system that uses a “conversational assistant” to provide congestive heart failure patients with a “daily check-up.” Through voice-activated questions and responses or text-typed chat, patients share information relevant to their condition. The computer interprets that input to provide personalized recommendations based on established guidelines and collects longitudinal data to share with the patients and their care providers.
* Stanford University and Art Center College of Design designed a set of multimedia PHR tools to help adolescents with chronic illness communicate with their providers and others about their health.
* T.R.U.E Research Foundation designed a PHR to help people with diabetes understand and track their self-care.
Plenty more here:
It is well worth exploring all this to see the range of ideas that are emerging as people progressively understand just where PHR technology may fit and the places it may make a difference.
David.
3 comments:
I think we'd all agree that any movement is good movement when it comes to a greater degree of understanding of exactly what a PHR system should or should not be. The danger here (Australia) is that if we hang on for that perfect system we will never get it.
We really need to start off with educating the public as to the value of having their health records accessible as and when they need them, let the user base drive the development of PHR systems even if at least initially this is simply added functionality to existing free systems like Health Facebook/MySpace etc. Then we can move to the national free government PHR system that we're beginning to hear rumours about.
Emily seems to be suggesting Australia is hanging on for “that perfect system”. Not so. There is no evidence for that? There is nothing to preventing any organisation from bringing a PHR system to market in Australia. The public can choose to accept and use such a system if they have a need and want to. Government isn’t stopping that from happening - free market forces are allowed to prevail.
There is plenty of energy starting up such as Microsoft’s HealthVault and GoogleHealth. These two organisations have all the resources and more to educate the public, create the demand, build ‘a’ system and have a go. If one or another gains traction the rationale is that Government will need to fall in behind and help drive the uptake further.
Health FaceBook, MySpace and other such gizzmos will have little effect on the PHR space. The bottom line is 'can the clinician' trust the information? What is the likelihood that your average 'wally' will be able to enter clinical information like the medications they are taking or the result of their blood test with any degree of accuracy. Absolutely zilch.
That being the case the information that goes into a PHR or some similar receptacle needs to be entered by the originating source without any double handling or retyping and accessible by those who need to use it in a structured and organised way where it can be sorted every which way as required. Maybe educating the public is the wrong place to start until an acceptable system is on offer which works in an acceptable way.
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