While the nation waits for the electronic health record (EHR) to become an everyday reality, the Department of Health & Human
Services (HHS) is pushing for widespread use of personal health records (PHRs), which are controlled by the consumer and include
a medication history. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt recently accepted the first set of interoperability standards for PHR, hammered
out over many months by the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP).
A public/private group under contract from HHS to "harmonize" many standards for health data exchange, HITSP chooses from
among a number of well-established standards. The panel, part of the structure surrounding the Office of the National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology (ONC), is closely related to the certification of EHRs. The PHR standards designated include
the "Federal Medication Terminologies" and the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) SCRIPT Standard Implementation
Guide Version 8.1.
Despite different definitions for PHRs and different versions available from commercial vendors and others, the new standards
see consumers creating an account to host their registration information and medication history, then authorizing healthcare
providers, pharmacists, and payers to access that information. A recent report from an HHS advisory committee said PHR data
"may be stored in a variety of locations, including an Internet-accessible database, a provider's electronic health record
(EHR), the consumer/patient's home computer, a portable device such as a smart card or thumb drive, or a privately maintained
database."
Taneya