Health Topics

• Data Development
• Health Care Reform
• Health Information Technology
• Medicaid and CHIP
• Medicare
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse
• Payment Policies and Costs
• Public and Population Health
• Quality and Health System Functioning
• State Health Policy

Using Personal Health Records to Address Disparities in Health Care

Personal health records (PHRs)—electronic records of an individual's health information that the individual owns and manages in a secure environment—have the potential to improve health care quality and access to care. They may also empower consumers and help them take a more active role in their health care by allowing them to access and coordinate health information and share it with those who need it.

Individuals and providers may both enter PHR data, but the individual controls access to the information. Although PHRs are in their infancy, experts think that PHRs in the future will rely on web-based technology and the internet.

How PHRs can be used to enhance health care quality for underserved populations, most of them minorities with low health and computer literacy, remains largely unanswered. The federal government is running a demonstration to assess the feasibility of accessing health data through the use of PHRs by Medicare, the Veterans Administration, and TriCare beneficiaries with the goal of reducing health disparities and improving care coordination.

To inform policy discussions about the future direction of PHRs in reducing disparities, Mathematica conducted focus groups in federally designated medically underserved areas in New Jersey. These discussions addressed several key questions: (1) How do members of underserved populations view the concept of PHRs? (2) What are the potential barriers to adopting PHRs among underserved populations? (3) What factors must be considered in designing PHRs for underserved populations? (4) Do the most widely used PHRs in the market address the needs of these populations?

The project produced two issue briefs addressing these questions and their policy implications. The briefs were widely circulated among thought leaders in the federal government and private industry involved in the design and implementation of this technology.

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