As I mentioned yesterday, it looks like mobile phone accessible PHRs could be the break-out topic at the Wolrd Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. next week. It's timely then that Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care, recently gave an interview in which he declared personal electronic health records (PEHRs) on the mobile phone a "disruptive technology in the works".
"The advantages of electronic medical records, which make patient information accessible and portable, have been talked about for a long time," Christensen told HBS' Working Knowledge site. "One hurdle to progress on this relates, again, to the existing business model, which makes it difficult for information stored on one health-care provider's software system to merge with information from other facilities. There's a new disruptive technology in the works, personal electronic health records (PEHRs), an open-source tool that collects data from all providers and gives patients access over the Internet or by mobile phone."
While the industry doesn't need another acronym, I like that "PEHR" is a personal health record (PHR) that has been merged with a care facility's electronic health record (EHR) to give a more complete picture of both parties' observations of the patient's health.
For the rest of the interview, check out the Working Knowledge site here.