Personal Health Records and Patient Engagement Week 3

Personal Health Records and Their Impact on Patient Engagement and Safety

Welcome back💜! This week's blo,g we are going to look at PHRs and understand the difference between them and EHRs  👀

    What is a Personal Health Record (PHR)? How does its use increase patient engagement? How do they increase patient safety and provide better quality of care? How do PHRs improve the relationship between patients and providers? Questions that are key to understanding how PHRs play a critical role in the daily life and patients and providers and how patient outcomes can be improved. 

    What is a Personal Health Record? A PHR is the collection of an individual's medical documentation maintained by the individual or a caregiver in cases where patients are unable to do so themselves. According to Sarwal and Gupta (2024), the personal information includes details such as:

• The patient's medical history
• Applicable diagnoses
• Historical and ongoing medications, including over-the-counter and alternative treatments
• Past medical and surgical interventions
• Immunization status
• Allergies and other relevant medical conditions that can impact the delivery of emergency care (eg, type 1 diabetes)
• Blood type
• Whom to contact in the event of an emergency
• Insurance information
• Contact information for the patient's regular health providers

    PHRs can either be independent, standalone records or tethered personal records, both though are beneficial to keeping the patient's healthcare management up to date. A standalone PHR is where the information is filled in by the patient based on their own memory and records and is kept on the patient's personal electronic devices or the internet (HealthIt.gov, 2019). They can then choose who they share it with, such as family, friends, and their healthcare team, and they can update it with information like exercise, diet, and track their progress over time (HealthIt.gov, 2019). A tethered PHR is linked to an organization's electronic health records and provides the patient access through a secure portal that provides them information on their test results and trends, vaccination records, and when they are due for health screenings (HealthIt.gov, 2019). 

    PHRs can improve patient adherence to follow-up, allow patients to better monitor therapeutic goals such as blood pressure or blood glucose thresholds, allow recognition of improvement or worsening of control of existing medical conditions, improve compliance with medication regimens, especially when these regimens are complex—all of which culminate in the achievement of superior management of medical issues (Sarwal & Gupta, 2024). When patients are more engaged with their healthcare, they are more likely to adhere to their treatment plans and medication regimens and are more likely to go to follow-up appointments because they understand the need to do so. When utilizing PHRs, patients can see all of their information in one easy-to-access location, which makes it convenient and also allows patients to ask providers current questions about their healthcare and creates a strong patient-provider relationship (Ruhi & Chugh, 2021). 

    PHRs can also be used in emergencies when patients or their loved ones are unable to provide necessary medical information (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2011). They can also provide patients with better care coordination because patients can see all of the information about their care providers in one place and communicate with their team as needed. Overall, the goal of PHR is to foster an environment of safety, create better patient-provider relationships, reduce costs to the patient, promote better patient outcomes, and provide reliable information to be shared between patients and providers (Ruhi & Chugh, 2021). 

                                                                        References

HealthIt.gov. (2019, July 30). Are there different types of personal health records (PHRs)? | HealthIT.gov. Www.healthit.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/faq/are-there-different-types-personal-health-records-phrs

Ruhi, U., & Chugh, R. (2021). Utility, Value, and Benefits of Contemporary Personal Health Records: Integrative Review and Conceptual Synthesis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(4), e26877. https://doi.org/10.2196/26877

Sarwal, D., & Gupta, V. (2024, September 10). Personal health record. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557757/

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology . (2011). PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS: WHAT HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS NEED TO KNOW. https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/about-phrs-for-providers-011311.pdf