Building a personal health record from a nursing perspective
A complex set of needsincreased accessibility to and interest in health information, more respect for patients rights, advanced information technologies, and pressure to seek cost-effective healthcare deliverymade the personal health record (PHR) necessary. Nursing, as essential to healthcare, must be represented in a PHR, but few studies have explored the nurse's role in the development and expansion of the PHR. The aim of this project was to design and develop an Internet-based PHR, IowaPHR, in order to demonstrate how nursing can be integrated into the PHR. In addition to the common features of the PHR as detailed by previous studies, IowaPHR contains the following innovations: (1) the information embraces major community health concerns; (2) an interactive featurethe self-assessment and feedback fieldwas created by transforming a standardized nursing language into appropriate questions adjusted for consumer vocabulary level; and (3) a user-friendly interface was equipped with trends in health conditions and a diary function. This PHR was then evaluated by experts in terms of content, ease of navigation, time needed to complete tasks, ability to find desired information, and site presentation. In the evaluation of this PHR, experts assigned high scores to four items. Completion of the tasks took an average of 16.25min. Allowing self- or caregivers to observe health conditions through completion of the questions on our PHR will precisely address clinic visitors health problems, assist in planning interventions, and promote education of and empowerment for health care. This PHR will provide a new way for nursing informatics to enhance the capacity of nursing in consumer health and to make a difference in the larger context of health informatics.
personal health record standardized nursing language nursing informatics nursing outcomes classification regional health information organizations