Personal Health Records

Ever since my involvement with Phase Forward, I have been intrigued by the possibilities of introducing information technology across the health care world. One of the hot topics in this arena right now is the use of Personal Health Records (PHRs).

I am speaking on a panel about business models for PHRs at the '07 Personally Controlled Health Records Infrastructure Conference talking place today and tomorrow. I attended last year's first conference and found myself rubbing shoulders with luminaries from government (HHS, VA, CDC), academia, startups, large employers (WalMart, BP, Intel), technology providers (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO, INTU) and more. There was then, and even more so now (vis Dossia), a feeling that PHRs really can deliver value for all players in the health care system.

The trouble is that there is no clear business model that has emerged. The work on PatientSite at BIDMC, Healthvault from Microsoft, and Dossia illustrate three of many disparate approaches, any one or more of which may take root and grow well.

I am scooping myself by previewing my panel presentation and analysis of the 26 (or more) possible economic models that I have distilled from my exposure to the field thus far... and I expect to hear about more at the conference this year. I will share my thoughts of the conference and the panel later this week.