Creating personal health record value from the bottom up
A Health information index (Hii) system creates value from a personal health record (PHR) by linking that record to a knowledge base and telling patients what they can about what ails them.
It's part of a 20-year quest by Steve Beller (right), a clinical psychologist by training who founded National Health Data Systems.
Recently at his blog, Curing Healthcare, Beller began blogging about how to integrate a PHR with actionable information.
Data is nested so you can drill into the detail. Links and databases can be added automatically so that when someone clicks on a condition the data says they have, they get real advice on what to do.
It reads like a homebrew, do-it-yourself version of what West Shell III and his partners are building through Healthline. The difference is Beller is building from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down.
The goal in both instances is the same, to link personal data to actionable information so you become a better-informed health consumer. Or, as my doctor puts it (when she's being kind), a "royal pain in the neck."
From what I've seen top-down solutions usually get built-out first, because there's motivation to build them. And bottom-up solutions challenge them later.
We'll see if it happens in this case.