Developing a personal health record for community-dwelling older adults and clinicians: technology and content

To empower older consumers and improve health outcomes, a consumer-friendly personal health record (PHR) is needed. The purpose of this article was to evaluate PHR technology and content for older community-dwelling consumers. Specific aims were to: (a) develop a secure, web-based application for a PHR to enable interoperable exchanges of data between consumers and clinicians; (b) develop structured, evidence-based shared care plan content for the PHR using an interface terminology standard; and (c) validate the shared care plans with consumers. An interoperable web-based form was developed. The standardized PHR content was developed by expert panel consensus using the Omaha System problem list and care plans, and validated by consumer interviews. Evidence-based shared care plans for 21 problems common among community-dwelling older adults were developed and encoded with Omaha System terms for data capture in the PHR. An additional problem, Neighborhood-workplace safety, was identified by consumers and will be added to the care plans.