Personal Health Record: Is It a Realistic Expectation?

Abstract

A personal health record (PHR) provides an avenue for patients to track their personal health information, such as doctors' visits, medications, allergies, lab results, surgeries, etc. This allows patients to provide a complete and accurate health profile to their health care professionals, which should improve diagnoses and patient outcomes. But this benefit can be realized only if individuals are willing to create accurate PHRs. A survey was delivered to participants (N = 124) to determine the likelihood that they would complete a PHR and, if so, what measures they would take to complete it accurately. Would they prefer an electronic or paper format? Is there a profile related to demographics and health beliefs of those who are likely, versus those who are unlikely, to create a PHR? The results show that slightly more than half of the participants are likely to complete a PHR, and over 90% plan to take measures to ensure their PHR's accuracy. Half said that they prefer to have a paper version of the PHR, and an additional 10% said they want both an electronic and paper copy. This pilot study found no relationship between demographics and the likelihood of completing a PHR, but did find a relationship with the health belief of self-efficacy at an alpha of 0.001. Though limited in scope, the study shows some important challenges that need to be addressed before consumers can adopt PHRs widely.