e-Health -- PHRs in the spotlight

Sounds of silence reverberated around the soccer world on the afternoon of Friday July 2nd, 2010; Brazil had just been eliminated from the FIFA World Cup of Soccer in South Africa after being beaten by the Netherlands, a team many thought didn't stand much of a chance to advance.
From the perspective of Personal Health Records (PHRs), I'd say something similar  (relatively speaking) occurred in Canada when Telus announced its entrance onto the e-health stage at the end of May, 2010.

A couple of weeks later (and unaware of the announcement), I attended a conference in Toronto where Telus management gave a keynote speech informing attendees of the company's portfolio of Information Technology (IT) products and services; from data center management to consulting, Telus is much more than the phone company I had envisioned it to be -- the media release therefore made a lot of sense when I did manage to read it.

This is huge; you see, Microsoft and Google already have PHR products, but one of the main concerns I regularly hear discussed is the fact that since their data centers are mainly located in the USA, customers' health data could be subjected to the vagaries of the Patriot Act -- people are basically concerned that their medical history could be searched, copied, destroyed or generally made unavailable should the government feel such actions to be in the best interest of the country.

Well, the Telus announcement has in effect eradicated all of those concerns; here we have one of the top 500 companies in Canada (heck, it's right up there with Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc.) teaming up with Microsoft, one of the top ten software companies in the world to bring us an e-Health application that's geared to Canadians; based on the history of the players involved, it'll be secure, reliable and easy to use.

As a refresher, a PHR application will allow you to capture, upload, store, display and manage health-related information that's owned by you -- just imagine the following possibilities:

• you move to a new city and there's no need to purchase a CD/DVD of your history from your previous healthcare provider beforehand -- everything you need is as close as the nearest web browser
• you get home from a vigorous workout and you just have to plug the device that was strapped to your arm into your computer device to upload data that can include heart rate, blood pressure and distance traveled
• you need to record your blood pressure or other attributes daily -- don't worry, devices are coming that'll store the data and allow you to upload to your PHR at your convenience
• soon you'll be able to show off your superb physical condition to interested parties using your iPad/iPhone or similar device, because there'll be an app for that too

I predict that we're on the verge of an explosion of activity in the area of self-help health management; stay tuned -- my pledge is to keep you apprised.

Well, the games have ended; the team I was following just managed a place on the podium, but I predict vengeance will be exacted in Brazil in 2014.

In the meantime, I'm immediately putting in place a savings plan to ensure I can afford the Brazilian version of the vuvuzela.

Image credit: Salvatore Vuono

Ernest A. James

President/CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.