As More Docs Use Digital Records, So Will Consumers – Healthcare – Electronic Medical Records – Informationweek

Some good points on Electronic Health Records (EHR) and complementary Personal Health Records (PHR) for patients. As always, the key is making the technology effortless for doctors and patients. For patients, as the article notes, the challenge is that healthy patients will only use PHRs occasionally (unlike banking), not making it worthwhile (for chronic patients, this is not an issue but simplicity is).

My own family doctor operates electronically – all docs are scanned, and her clinic notes are done on the computer. Does mean some time on data entry, but she is also good with eye contact and conversation so not an issue.

One reader flagged the US Surgeon General Family Health Portrait tool, which I have not yet tried (My Family Health Portrait), given privacy concerns (likely overblown).

As More Docs Use Digital Records, So Will Consumers – Healthcare – Electronic Medical Records – Informationweek.