Although Google will shut down its Google Health PHR portal, creating and maintaining your own electronic health record is still an important piece of the puzzle to manage your health care.
In recent blog posts, you’ve seen me discuss the importance of EHR [electronic health record]. Hospital Review reported Peter Christensen Health Center in Lac Du Flambeau, WI attributes the increased in life expectancy from 56 years in 2005 to 59 years for Chippewa Indians in their community to EHR. This doesn’t mean if your physician implements EHR your life expectancy will immediately increase by 5 years, but it does highlight a possible outcome of national EHR implementation.
In addition, research by Frost & Sullivan suggests the increase use of EHRs by providers and payers along with continued development of mobile health tools could lead to growth in PHRs [personal health records]. Jessica Ryan Ohling, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, stated PHRs have a chance at success if they’re embedded as a component of physician-managed EHRs in which the data will be fed from the EHR into the PHR. Although PHRs suffered a small setback with Google Health pulling out of this space, PHRs are coming and they will be here to stay.
As I iterated last week, I will continue to investigate other online PHRs to recommend, in the mean time, continue to keep your health care notes in a 3 ring binder. Managing your health care electronically via EHR is definitely coming, it’s coming to your physician, lab, pharmacy, hospital, and your other healthcare providers. You will be a step ahead of the curve as your providers’ transition to EHR if you’ve already begun to personally manage your health care electronically.
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