QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK ABOUT PHR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

Personal health records may offer the most benefit to people with complex or chronic conditions, and those who see multiple providers. For others, PHRs may offer convenience or provide peace of mind. In any case, with the dozens of alternative PHR products and services available, it pays to consider what features are most important to you.

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• How will the data be used? This is especially important when your health plan or employer is offering a PHR. Will the information you enter have any impact on coverage decisions?

• Who has access to the PHR? You will want to make sure that your privacy is safeguarded.

• How portable is the PHR? Once you have gone to the trouble to create a health record, will you be able to take it with you when you leave your current health plan, employer, or physician?

• Are there any costs involved with maintaining the PHR?

• How much control will you have over the data that is entered? Many PHRs require you to enter all relevant information about your health, and to continually update that information. In other cases, the information is automatically supplied, and you cannot edit or alter the information in any way. Find out how the PHR is maintained.

• How do you want to use the PHR? Do you have complex medical conditions that need to be tracked continually, or do you mainly need to stay on top of your kids' immunizations? Do you travel extensively and need easy access to medical information while on the road?

Source: American Health Information Management Association, Chicago, Ill.

FREE SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE

• Hesitant to commit to a monthly or even yearly fee for a PHR? There are free options available. One of these is iHealthRecord.org, a service provided by San Francisco, Calif.-based Medem. Any consumer can go to the Web site to create and maintain his or her own health record at no charge.

However, the vast majority of consumers are using the tool as a communications vehicle with their personal physician where they are making appointments, renewing prescriptions and even exchanging e-mail with the practice.

This is where the real value of a PHR comes into play, according to Dr. Edward Fotsch, CEO of Medem. "It takes the previously episodic relationship between the physician and the patient and turns it into an interactive relationship," he says, noting that it is really the only way to get large numbers of consumers to actually use their PHRs. "Unless [a PHR] is connected to your doctor, it is like an ATM with no money in it."

• To set up the kind of interactive PHR that Fotsch describes, your physician has to pay an annual fee to make use of Medem's suite of services, which includes a practice Web site and some other bells and whistles.

You can find physicians in the Atlanta area already using the iHealthRecord in this way by using Medem's physician finder, available through the company Web site. What happens if you decide to switch physicians later on?

Fotsch maintains that your PHR is yours to maintain privately through the iHealthRecord Web site, or to take to another physician who uses the service.