Personal health records are a growing phenomenon where users take some control over their own health by maintaining copies of their own health records by amalgamating reports from all their different providers. Here's a link about PHRs from the American Health Information Management Association.
However, the
flaw with PHRs is that the patient has to maintain the information
themselves. They may ask for copies of their medical records, but they
then have to transcribe them to store them in the PHR. Some PHR operators
will allow users to fax in a record that is then stored in their PHR.
All very messy. And very asynchronous. And prone to many factual
errors. Why is the patient attempting to replicate the role of their
FP in coordinating their medical care?
A much better way to have
a PHR is via a portal. This is known as a tethered PHR... because it
is primarily operated by a health provider.
Now,
if a family practitioner were to use SynapseDirect.com to host their EMR at a cost of
$1200 per annum, and say they had 2000 patients, of whom 50% wished to
take advantage of the portal/PHR at $10 pa, that leaves a gross profit
before tax of $8800 for the physician hosting with SynapseDirect!
How many other EMRs pay you ???