I walked past this sign, welcoming people to Pomona College, in Claremont, California. As our profession thinks about broadening consumer health informatics to help more people (from diverse backgrounds and parts of our society), we should remember to share the added riches of our learning, experience, and ideas for improving health care in trust for mankind. More innovation happens when more is shared, not less. This includes what we did well with, and what mistakes we made.

Congratulations Kaiser Permanente.

While many PHRs in the market are finding it difficult to attract users, Kaiser Permanente has long offered its members access to key features in managing their health online at kp.org.

This is a very important statement. The experience of Kaiser Permanente members challenges the idea that “patients don’t want PHRs.” They absolutely do - if the PHR helps people manage their health and connect to their health care team.

Two Million People Using Kaiser Permanente’s Personal Health Record