Preface to Report

We’re down to the final proofs, the final edits and the PHR Market Report will be ready by the end of the week.  A long process, but well worthwhile – the end result being a comprehensive report of roughly 100 pages in length and 20 in-depth vendor profiles.

My deep thanks and appreciation go out to so many who have provided advice, assistance and encouragement.  While there are far too many to list all contributors, special thanks go out to Rick Benoit at Intel, Ken Mandl and Will Crawford at Children’s Hospital Boston, Sean Nolan at Microsoft, Jerry Lin at Google, David Dobrin of B2B Analysts, and all the PHR vendors who showed such patience in answering my many questions.

As a lead-in, following is the Preface to the Report.  Again, to be notified when report is released, simply send an email to info-at-chilmarkresearch.com

Quite suddenly, the Personal Health Record (PHR) market has taken on renewed interest.  Countless press articles extol both the virtues and risks of PHRs. Government institutions are dedicating resources to understand how PHRs may affect the healthcare sector – driving needed change. Employers and health plans seek new ways of using PHRs to engage their constituents, encouraging them to adopt healthy behaviors. Providers are adopting PHR solutions to deliver added value to their customers and increase customer retention.

Against this back-drop, within the last year the PHR market has seen the entrance of two of the largest and arguably most significant consumer-driven software companies in the world, Google and Microsoft, who are each pursuing their own consumer-focused, personal healthcare strategies. Even the employer-led consortium, Dossia is back on track developing a personal healthcare platform with Children’s Hospital of Boston that when complete may serve upwards of 8 million consumers.

Further, it is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. healthcare market is in need of some serious restructuring. While PHRs are no panacea for the healthcare challenges this country faces, they have the potential to initiate change that is long overdue, change that will be consumer led and consumer driven.

Yet, despite this interest, a clear, pressing need, and the entrance of major players, the PHR market remains an elusive, challenging market to understand and predict its future outcome. A multitude of companies, large and small, have developed an equally broad array of PHR solutions. Some solutions reside on a consumer’s desktop, others come on a USB and still others are offered over the Web. Beyond modalities, the capabilities of these solutions are even more wide ranging, from simplistic systems for filing of electronic records to sophisticated solutions with personalization tools that guide the user on not only how to manage their health and the health of loved ones, but may for example provide advice on who may be the best physician in their area for a given aliment and the costs of treatment.

Over the last several months, Chilmark Research has interviewed a wide range of PHR vendors, users, employers, proponents, detractors and observers. One observation became readily apparent in these discussions, the future of the PHR market lies on the Web. Therefore, unlike other reports on this market, the focus of this report is strictly on Web-based PHR applications, that are referred to as iPHR solutions.

First in a series of reports, this report is designed to bring clarity to the reader on where the iPHR market is today, where it is headed and the adoption challenges that need to be overcome. Most importantly, the report will assist the reader in understanding who are the leading iPHR vendors today, what is their unique value proposition and areas they need to improve. Armed with this information the reader will have the knowledge necessary to initiate their own evaluation and selection of an iPHR solution that meets their personal needs or the needs of the organization they represent.