Just how personal?
I’ve been writing quite a bit of late about personal health records, as have many of my peers. I’ll be writing some more in the next few weeks (though you won’t see the result for at least a couple of months). It’s clearly a hot topic in the realms of consumer empowerment and the push toward interoperability. But the general consensus is that a PHR, which can take many forms, is merely a subset of a true EHR.
Is that thinking wise when trying to empower patients with control of their health information? An American in Paris, namely blogger and consultant Denise Silber, doesn’t seem to think so. She notes in a post that’s now a few months old that “personal” has carried the day in France, where the EMR is called dossier médical personnel, or “personal medical file.”
Silber writes, “Why? Because one of the most important aspects of the French EMR is that the information belongs to the patient.”
Contrast that to the French Canadian term, dossier de santé électronique, which essentially means “electronic health record.”
Say what you want about the French—and many Americans do—but they may actually be on to something here. (And keep in mind not only that France’s new president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy is an Americophile, but that Americans apparently think more highly of the French than the French think of themselves.)
Yeah, so I’m going out of my way to practice the only foreign language I ever studied. Admit it, you still liked this post. And if someone wants to fly me to Paris to check up on my reporting, I’ll meet you at the airport in an hour.
Thanks for the citation. The DMP or personal medical record in France is at a standstill, awaiting the new administration. So we’ll see how it goes. But am not that optimistic at this point. As to the “personal” side, the patient does indeed choose what information, if any, is to be shared with healthcare professionals. There is even a provision for the patient to dissimilate the fact that information was dis-included….if you can understand what that is all about. A French legislator did an entire report on the subject.
Neil, I agree with your assessment of the Personal Health Record (PHR) as a subset of a Clinical Health Record (CHR), which is a subset of an Enterprise Health Record (EHR), which is really a subset of the…You get the picture. The point is that you are right…what we are really talking about is an “X”HR which I have previously described (http://scottshreeve.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-dimension-introducing-xhr.html)This, in essence, is the ultimate health care “mashup” extracting all your healthcare information into a common lifetime record, assembled context specific on demand. Look for some additional posts regarding this topic.
I’m not convinced that the wording of the PHR in French is particularly important. After all, the French are not enthusiastic about adding new words, so they needfully describe new concepts with old words. in any case, it is important that the control over the PHR rest with the patient and that the patient delegates access to physicians.(as listed here: http://healthtech.accordingtome.com/2007/06/21/you-cant-improve-what-you-cant-measure/ )