Welcome to the very first public comment period for Personal Health Records draft criteria for certification:
Public Comment – CCHIT Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology
There is an introductory document that accompanies the PHR criteria that I encourage all commenters to read.
In getting to this point, I was trying to remember why I applied to be a part of this first workgroup, because I was initially skeptical about its utility. That changed when I saw the Advisory Task Force recommendations, and when I reflected on my first year of service, in the Foundations Workgroup.
The great thing about serving on this group for me was listening to a diversity of experience and role in health care and personal health records. I learned that personal health records can be more than a supplement to the patient-physician relationship – they can support health in a variety of situations. I wrote about their value in emergency situations previously, which is something I really didn’t envision in my previous work.
I also learned that some of the dreams we have had for personal health records, that they could integrate information from multiple sources, and be controllable and manageable by patients could come true. This would require that we decide what the most important building blocks are, and create an environment where experts across organizations could share best practices and create a 3-5 year vision for products, rather than a 6 month – 1 year vision, which sometimes happens within individual organizations. I think this is what CCHIT is supporting in its leadership.
The public comment period is intended to get us there, because the criteria are still draft. See what you think and thanks for your comments about the criteria (on the CCHIT Website, please).
