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Personal Health Records ( Phrs )

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Personal Health Records (PHRs) refer to computer-based systems that enable patients (their caregivers acting in their stead) monitor and manage their health. Like other popular online platforms for banking, shopping, etc., PHRs allow patients to remotely access some level of healthcare service. Some examples of services provided by tethered PHRs – PHRs owned or controlled by a single or multiple healthcare organization; include viewing laboratory test results, scheduling hospital appointments, reordering medication, or securely communicating with healthcare providers. PHRs also avail healthcare organizations a means to closely, but remotely, monitor the health of patients thus allowing them to provide continuous care.

The PHR was one of three health information systems that came to the limelight in 2009 (the others are the Electronic Medical Record and the Electronic Health Record), when the Institute of Medicine intensified efforts to improve the quality of the process of collection of patient data. The data collection process was prone to error, and was a principal source of wrong medication with adverse drug effect. With the PHR, and unlike other health information systems, patients could access and crosscheck their records, transfer their records between different healthcare organizations or organize and manage records generated by different health organizations into a single system. Additionally, in this era of rising cost of healthcare provision, decreasing labour

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