Written by Kevin B. Johnson, M.D., M.S.
See the full supplement here www.tinyurl.com/Project-HealthDesign
PHR products are rapidly evolving and increasing in numbers. There are many varying approaches to ensuring that the record be patient-controlled, from universal serial bus devices to more sophisticated and robust models of the data that embed access and authorization rights into the metadata of the record.
Each of these technically distinct approaches is based on different, and typically provider-centric, perceptions of the essential design requirements. However, these visions for PHR development often lack the association with specific use cases. How will these technical approaches scale to meet the demands of a child being cared for in multiple care settings? How well do these approaches align with the types of data and monitoring of an adult with diabetes? What can we learn about health behavior modification through home gaming systems, and how should those systems interface with PHRs?
It is in the spirit of this reality that the Pioneer Portfolio at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched Project HealthDesign. This initiative was created to “stimulate innovation in personal health information technology.” After an extremely competitive applications process, nine teams were awarded funding to create a user-refined vision and prototype to demonstrate how personal health information technology can solve real problems that patients experience today. These projects encompassed a wide range of medical specialties, patient care settings, and patient demographics. Each project team worked both as a group and collaboratively with other project teams to refine visions, develop common tools, and present their findings.
The findings are plentiful. The results are exciting, to say the least, and transformative in many respects. And, best of all, these results are summarized in the current Journal of Biomedical Informatics supplement. We anticipate that this online-only supplement, which consists of manuscripts and appendices with copious screen snapshots, will be an extremely useful vision for the advancement of personal health records and architectures. I hope you agree!
