Publications and research

The Power of Personal Health Records

A four-part special podcast on the promise of PHRs from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Published: July 09, 2008

Americans routinely go online to shop, keep in touch with friends and family, sketch out driving directions, make travel plans, and research just about anything we’re interested in. We even manage investments and bank accounts, pay bills and file our tax returns online.

When it comes to managing our own health, however, we remain mired in a mountain of paper. Most of us do not have electronic access to our medical records or health care providers, and many of the records that do exist on the computers of our doctors, hospitals and pharmacies are difficult to share.

There are also few products available to consumers that allow them to compile and track their health information in ways that help them manage their health more effectively.

New visions of PHRs are under development—ones that, when paired with smart, consumer-friendly technology, can help people take charge of their health in powerful new ways. Advocates of digital health information sharing say that if individuals had their own electronic personal health records it could improve health care delivery, lower costs, and make it dramatically easier for all of us to manage our health and get the care we need.

Is this really so? Are the potential benefits as significant as advocates claim? And what’s holding providers and patients back from crossing this digital frontier?

To explore the problems and possibilities of personal health records, we present a four-part podcast series, produced by WGBH in Boston. Stay tuned each week for new updates.

There are two ways to listen.

First, listen live on the site by clicking on the links at the beginning of this post.

Second, listen to the series as a podcast, newly updated every time we post a new installment.

If you're new to podcasting, you'll need a podcast client, such as iTunes or My Yahoo.

(More details on podcasting here.)

To listen to the series as a podcast, please insert the following link into your preferred podcast client:

http://rwjf.byoaudio.com/rss/phrs.xml

Credits:
This series was produced for RWJF by WGBH Interactive
Beatrice Black, Reporter & Producer
Howard Cutler, Executive Producer
Andrew Holtz, Moderator & Host