JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The increasing demand for Personal Health Record (PHR) systems is driven by the desire of individuals to actively manage their healthcare. However, the limited functionality of the current PHR systems has affected users’ willingness to adopt them, leading to lower-than-expected adoption rates. To address this issue, the HL7 Personal Health Record System Functional Model (PHR-S FM) outlines a standardized model of the functionalities that may be present in PHR systems. It encompasses three sections: Personal Health (PH), Support (S), and Information Infrastructure (IN). This model enables researchers to select appropriate functionalities based on specific project needs, thereby facilitating the development of PHR systems that effectively satisfy user health management requirements.

Objective:

This study aimed to design and develop a PHR system prototype in alignment with the PHR-S FM’s guidelines, focusing on meeting users’ current functionality needs.

Methods:

Based on previous research, we defined a PHR-S FM functional profile, incorporating 14 features of the PH module for health data management, three features of the S module for administrative management, and six features of the IN module to enhance the accessibility and usability of the PHR system. The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources R4 (FHIR) and Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) coding systems were employed to fulfill the model’s data consistency and interoperability requirements. A web-based PHR prototype was developed using Python and JavaScript, utilizing Firely Server R4 as the FHIR server. Finally, we compared our results with those of other studies to verify the prototype’s coverage.

Results:

The prototype featured functionalities such as user demographics, patient-generated health data, encounter history, and comprehensive records based on the PH module to manage personal health data efficiently. The S module provided functionalities for managing healthcare provider and facility information, thus facilitating administrative management. The system’s accessibility was enhanced by the IN module, which included functionalities such as access control and auditable records. Employing FHIR and LOINC, the prototype efficiently managed various types of medical data, including allergies, vital signs, medications, diagnostics, and test reports, ensuring no data loss and maintaining consistency and interoperability. The present study implemented 16 of 29 applicable functions of the PHR-S FM, while prior studies implemented 9, 11, and 12 functions.

Conclusions:

In accordance with the PHR-S FM guidelines, this study developed a PHR prototype with an expanded range of standardized functionalities. The findings indicate that adopting the standardized PHR functionality framework provided by the PHR-S FM may lead to increased user adoption.