Free online personal health records for Montana Residents

Posted by Andrea Ryce on April 26th, 2006 Posted in: News from NLM, News From NNLM PNR

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From iHealthbeat, 4/25/06:

 

The Community Hospital of Anaconda in Montana will provide state residents with free Web-based personal health records (PHRs) in what it calls the country’s first rural online health record-keeping initiative, the Montana Standard reports (Haffey, Montana Standard, 4/21).

The hospital has licensed Medem’s iHealthRecord software for the program, Health Data Management reports (Health Data Management, 4/20). Patients’ health records will be entered and updated at providers’ Web sites, and all data will be stored electronically in one place. Participating patients will receive wallet cards that let them share secure information with physicians, family members and others via the Internet, the Standard reports. To help educate patients, the service offers programs to provide information on various conditions and treatments (Montana Standard, 4/21).

Student volunteers from the National Center for Health Care Informatics at the University of Montana will hold outreach events in the hospital’s four-county service area to help patients create the PHRs, but the service will be available to all Montana residents, Health Data Management reports (Health Data Management, 4/20).

Dr. William Reiter, an Anaconda internist who helped launch the service, said rural facilities are not as bureaucratic as urban hospitals, which has made it easier for his group to implement health IT. “There’s no reason why a good solid rural hospital can’t take the lead in the development of technology that’s so necessary for our patients,” he said (Montana Standard, 4/21).

(The Community Hospital of Anaconda is a NN/LM Network Member) – anr