INSTICC – Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication
Abstract
Active and responsible involvement of patients in their own health is accepted as an important contribution
towards an increased quality of health services in general. Management of Personal Health Information by
the patient can play an important role in the improvement in quality of the information available to health
care professionals and as a means of patient involvement. Electronic Health Records are a means of storing
this kind of information but their management usually falls under the responsibility of an institution and not
on the patient himself. A Personal Health Record under the direct control and management of the patient is
the natural solution for the problem. When implemented in a storage hardware portable device, a PHR,
allows for total mobility. Personal Health Information is very sensitive in nature so any implementation has
to address security and privacy issues. With this in mind we propose a structure for a secure Patient Health
Record stored in a USB pen device under the patient’s direct management and responsibility