National US personal health record launched

Medem, a not-for-profit company created by leading US medical societies including the American Medical Association, announced this week the national launch of an internet-based ‘personal health record’, that is intended to become the "ATM service for healthcare".

The new freely available internet-based personal health record, iHealthRecord, will allow patients to easily access and organise their personal medical histories and those of their families and make them available to approved physicians and health professionals.

The iHealthRecords program system allows patients to enter emergency medical contacts, insurance and medical information such as conditions, medications and allergies. Patients can use a password to access their records online and give family doctors and hospitals access to their details.

Patients who want multiple opinions can give new physicians their password so they can quickly view the patient’s history. The PHR programme is available on the iHealthRecords website as well as on participating physicians’ Web sites.

The iHealthRecord allows health information to be updated by patients themselves, by their physician’s electronic medical records systems or by their health plan. This interoperability helps to facilitate information exchange between healthcare providers, a key focus of the national healthcare IT infrastructure planned over the next 10 years in the US.

As part of the service patients receive education programs specific to their medical conditions, automated reminders regarding their medications and conditions, as well as FDA-related safety warnings and recalls. The iHealthRecord patient education programs have been developed with leading US medical societies.

"The AMA is committed to improving patient safety, enhancing healthcare quality and strengthening the patient-physician bond through the use of appropriate technology," said J. James Rohack, MD, Chairman of the AMA. "We believe that electronic personal health records are an important service for physicians and patients, and a key element of the national IT infrastructure."

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Dr Edward Fotsch, CEO of Medem described three main services that make up iHealthRecords: "First, a secure online health record under the control of the patient or their family. Into that are integrated automatic education programmes specific to the patient and their condition, and finally secure physician-patient email."

Dr Fotsch explained: "It’s the combination of these three services that makes iHealthRecord both unique and powerful."

Medem hopes that the spread of iHealth Record, currently in use by 10,000 Americans following a pilot programme with 50 doctors, will help fuel patient interest in online personal health records that they control and act as a spur for family doctors to start integrating them in conjunction with the electronic medical records.

According to Dr Fotsch 100,000 US family physicians are now offering access to iHealthRecord through their websites, or through the supplier directories of the major US health plans – one of the main routes patients take to choose their doctors. The Medem CEO said he hope the iHealthRecord logo would soon become something patient’s look for whenever they visit a doctor’s website.

Patients can also set up their own record directly from the iHealthrecord.com website, where using a series of simple online wizards they can set up their personal health record within 20-30 minutes. As part of this sign-up process patients are enrolled in education programmes that match their conditions.

"The patient controls their record and who sees it, with each record including a log of who views it," said Dr Fotsch.

Medem says that the aim is to establish iHealthRecod as the "ATM service of healthcare available 24/7". As part of this goal work is already underway to integrate detailed electronic medical records from healthcare providers. "Automatic updates from Electronic Medical Records are already happening led by our colleagues at Allscripts," said Dr Fotsch.

Several large medical groups are already providing the iHealthRecord service. "The iHealthRecord ends the long history of over-reliance upon the patient’s memory, spotty communication and a clip board, and replaces it with simple processes that increase patient safety and convenience," commented Gloria Austin, Chief Executive Officer for the 1,600 physician Brown & Toland Medical Group of San Francisco.

According to research carried out by Medem the key user of the record is most likely to be a woman in her mid-40s, a demographic who are the key healthcare decision-makers in the US

Medem was founded in 1999 by the AMA and six other medical societies, and. Some 90,000 physicians pay about $25 monthly for Medem’s other services, which include websites for physician practices and physician-patient e-mail capabilities.