Despite the growing use of the Internet, consumers are not embracing the consumer-directed electronic personal health record (PHR), according to industry experts quoted in a Feb. 2 iHealthBeat article. Revolution Health, a health company started by AOL co-founder Steve Case, implemented an online personal health record in 2007 and will shut it down at the end of February, according to iHealthBeat.
Several industry experts commented that the do-it-yourself health record is too much work for consumers to gather and input information. Consumer-controlled health records that receive data automatically have the potential to be more widely accepted by consumers in the future, according to the experts. More useful would be applications that accept data from a data utility later, such as lab results or information about medical office visits, and put the data into a useful format. One good example that was cited is a new PHR model called Keas, which collects data from several sources and then translate the information into action plans for patients, according to the report. iHealthBeat is a service of the California HealthCare Foundation.
