Immunizations: the first step in a personal health record to empower patients

Despite the promise of better health care through information-centric patient empowerment, little progress has been made. The issue is not that the data do not exist in a useable form, nor that technologies are lacking that would enable access to this information. There are two primary challenges standing in the way of patient empowerment: (1) in the private sector there is no proven revenue model for providing this access and (2) in the public sector the standard argument is confidentiality of information. The lack of a priority by either private or public health providers to empower individuals will lead to these initiatives being consumer driven. Access to immunization records through health informatics and supporting compunetics presents an easy-win opportunity to significantly empower individuals with their own health information. Scientific Technologies Corporation (STC) has been implementing and supporting immunization registries in North America for over fifteen years. As the leading expert in this area, STC has developed a process for achieving successful large-scale access to personal immunization records with minimal investment. As a first step to empower individuals with on-line access to their immunization records, the STC approach leverages the technical frameworks established for health insurance and 3rd party payer environments linking to statewide immunization information systems. The individual is provided access to their records through their insurer's health portal. This is populated through electronic exports of member immunization records as retrieved from state or provincial registries that contain provider-supplied patient records, allowing individuals to utilize these hosted services or download their provider administered records into their personal health record. Individuals have the ability to review their immunization and their family immunization histories. They have the ability to know when an immunization is due, where vaccines are available, and which vaccines minimize risks to disease. For the emerging industry of on-line personal health records, a patient's immunization record will be the single most important factor to demonstrate success for patient empowerment. It will create a roadmap to support the inclusion of other medical information.