Reviewing Internet-Based Personal Health Record Systems & Functions

This report analyzes internet-based Personal Health Record (PHR) systems, focusing on their functionality and suitability for patient use. It examines tools like MyChart, ZweenaHealth, and Mymediconnect, evaluating features such as patient-provider communication, personal health advocacy, decision support, and health management. The study uses secondary data and simple random sampling to assess the effectiveness of each tool. The findings indicate that Mymediconnect is the most comprehensive, incorporating all essential functions for effective patient-provider interaction and health management. The report concludes that PHR tools should be interactive, enabling patients to understand and act on their health information, ultimately promoting better healthcare outcomes. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Internet-based Personal Health Record
Internet-based Personal Health Record (PHR)
Introduction
Personal Health Record (PHR) is used to collect, share and track recent information concerning
your health or heath of a person under your care. It ensures past information of someone’s health
is available to health care facilities when needed. It saves you money and time of repeating a
medical test and also provides more knowledge and insights to medical officer regarding your
personal health. Some of the advantages of PHR are;
 Availability and readily accessible health records.
 Complete control on how your health information is used, retrieved, assessed and
disclosed.
 PHR contains reliable, accurate and complete information.
The content of PHR depends on healthcare, nature of medication and medical officers, below are
common features of PHR
a) Laboratory reports
b) Consent forms
c) X-rays and imaging reports
d) Physician orders
e) Immunization reports
f) History and physical records
g) Problem list
h) Medication record
Depending on nature of illness, emergency, nature of health facilities attended and the physician
the content of Personal Health Record will differ. It is therefore important for every individual to
have PHR, for better and cheaper treatment.
Methodology
To identify which internet based Personal Health Record is appropriate and which functionality
to consider while choosing PHR. Secondary data were used from MYPHR (2018). The research
used simple random sampling, which ensure every PHR tool have chance of being chosen. The
tools were internet based both free web based tools and for purchased which are Mychart tool,
ZweenaHealth tool and Mymediconnect tool. Data visualization tools were used to analyze and
summarized the data. That is graphical methods.
Result and discussion
Taha et al. (2013), listed five functions of PHR which are
 Patient – provider communication
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Internet-based Personal Health Record
 Personal health advocate
 Personal decision support
 Personal health journal
 Personal health management and monitoring
 Personal health reminders
MyChart PHR tool
Functions Feature Feature Feature
Patient – provider
communication Viewing test results
Viewing and
scheduling
appointments
Request
prescription
refill
Personal health advocate
Available on mobile
applications and web
browser
Integrated with other
health record device
Personal decision support Medication support - -
Personal health journal Video conference - -
Personal health
management and
monitoring Home monitoring device - -
Personal health reminders Video conference - -
Table 1: Functions of MyChart
MyChart tool put more emphasize on patient and provider communication which is one of the
most important function of PHR tool. Personal health advocate and personal health journal lack
enough features to track personal health and diet and also features to provide insights and
education to the users on billing, insurance and health care expenses.
Zweena Health PHR tool
Function Feature Feature
Patient – provider communication Personalized health record Controlled access
Personal health advocate 24/7 client support
Personal decision support Allow sharing across
multiple providers
Viewing and discussing
appointments
Personal health journal Aggregate view of medical
history -
Personal health management and
monitoring - -
Personal health reminders - -
Table 2: Functions of Zweena Health
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Internet-based Personal Health Record
Zweena Health PHR tool lacks all functions, mostly personal health reminders which are most
important features for person with risk factors such as obesity and diabetes. Personal health
management and monitoring function allow people to monitor and take responsibility of their
health from home. It is not advisable to take this tool.
Mymediconnect
Function Feature Feature
Patient – provider communication Person health record
Safety
deposit box
Personal health advocate Record retrieval -
Personal decision support Doctor connector -
Personal health journal Health education center -
Personal health management and
monitoring Wellness tracker -
Personal health reminders Record and send personalized
reminders -
Figure 3: Functions of Mymediconnect
This PHR tool incorporates every function which is important for every personal health record.
The patient will able to track, update and communicate with the medical officer at the same
place.
Conclusion
PHR tool are supposed to have interactive tools which allow understanding health information
and acting on this information. The best tool is Mymediconnect which have all necessary
functions to allow interaction between the patient and provider. It allows consumers to have
control their health information, use decision support, and to interact the health care system.
References
Taha J., Czaja J., Sharit J., & Morrow D. (2013). Factors affecting usage of a personal health
record (PHR) to manage health. Psychology and Aging 28, 1124_1139
myPHR. (2018). Choose a PHR. Retrieved From
http://www.myphr.com/resources/choose.aspx.
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