The Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy convened a roundtable meeting to discuss ways to integrate information contained in electronic health records into "personal health records" that individuals could use to do a better job of managing their health.

The meeting, "Personal Health Records and Electronic Health Records: Navigating the Intersections," was held September 28–29, 2006 in Washington.

Key Results

• Some 35 professionals from the public and private sector participated in the meeting.
• Investigators prepared a background report, The Transformative Potential of Integrated Personal Health Records, to guide participants in their discussions at the roundtable.
• A summary report of the roundtable discussions and an issue brief on the topic of personal health records are both available online.

Key Findings

Roundtable participants agreed that an "integrated personal health record," should:

• Maintain a comprehensive, accurate, privacy-protected, multi-sourced record about an individual's health.
• Provide endorsed, understandable knowledge, advice and health status data for an individual to act upon.
• Facilitate a personalized experience, promote health and wellness and support the health care of an individual.

Key Conclusions

• The data within an electronic personal health record alone is not sufficient to realize improvements in health and health care that can be considered transformative.
• Significant value will be realized only when personal health records incorporate systems, tools and other resources that leverage the data in the record and engage consumers to play a more active role in their health and health care.

See the roundtable summary report for a complete list of findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided a grant of $25,000 from September 2006 to January 2007 in partial support of the meeting. Kaiser Permanente provided additional financial support. The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American Medical Informatics Association co-sponsored the meeting.