Healthcare delivery is created to be provider-centric not patient-centric and as such the record of a person’s healthcare is created to be the same way.

Forget PHRs and get ‘crackin’ on opening up a person’s entire record on a shared platform that is both provider and patient accessible and readable.

Being able to email your doctor and seeing an image of your labs does nothing to inform you of the fact that your prostate hasn’t been checked in three years and your last PSA, though in the ‘normal’ reference range is double the last one and possibly worrisome. Coding that is not difficult.

People would be horrified if their quarterly investment report was only a phone call from their broker’s assistant saying ‘everything is fine, let’s check in three months’ (no report, no on-line viewing, no quarterly calls), but are quite content to receive a call from their doctor’s secretary saying ‘the results of your blood work are fine’, and leave it at that.

How do you know that report she looked at was yours? It isn’t always.