Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications in Child Health (Health ...

298 A.E. Zuckerman and G.R. Kim
21.6.2 PHR in a Children’s Hospital
Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota/St. Paul 30
This children’s hospital offers a PHR called the Children’s Medical Organizer as
a free service to their patients and families. This is a patient-controlled PHR that is
advertised on the institutional Website, with the purpose of helping patients to track
visits and important medical data. Much of the data in the PHR is entered by the
patient, and the system helps coordinate visits to multiple specialists.
Some patients in a children’s hospital use it as the main source of both primary
and specialty care that will require integrating both inpatient and ambulatory data.
In many cases, children’s hospitals are central community health resources that
serve many patients. As with the private practice model, PHRs may serve as marketing
tools that build loyalty from patients and from community practitioners.
21.6.3 PHR Sponsored by Employers
Dossia 31
This nonprofit consortium of major US employers, including Applied Materials,
BP America Inc., Cardinal Health, Intel Corporation, Pitney Bowes Inc., Wal-Mart,
AT&T Inc., and sanofi-aventis, has partnered with the Children’s Hospital
Informatics Program (CHIP) from the Children’s Hospital Boston, to use technology
used to develop the first personally controlled health record. 11,32 The purpose of
the consortium is to provide a Web-based, employer-sponsored PHR to employees
of the constituent companies.
According to the Dossia press release: “Based on the Indivo system, and with
the individual’s consent, the Dossia framework will gather health information from
various sources and store it within secured databases. Dossia’s use of the Indivo
open architecture will support multiple personal health applications, allowing users
to organize and summarize their information in ways that are most useful to them.
Health records will be secure and private, accessible only by the individual or others
to whom the individual has granted permission. Records also will be portable,
enabling individuals to continue using the records even if they change employers,
health plans or doctors. Participation by employees will be voluntary.” 33
21.6.4 PHR by an Individual Vendor
HealthVault 34
HealthVault, which was announced by the Microsoft Corporation in October
2007, is an online platform for storing personal health records. It provides a Webbased
interface where consumers can upload or share health documents from their
providers (such as letters, reports, and discharge summaries). Information from