title: A cost model for personal health records (PHRs).
abstract: Personal health records (PHRs) are a rapidly expanding area in medical informatics due to the belief that they may improve healthcare delivery and control costs of care. To truly understand the full potential value of a technology, a cost analysis is critical.However, little evidence exists on the value potential of PHRs, and a cost model for PHRs does not currently exist in the literature.This paper presents a sample cost model for PHR systems, which include PHR infrastructure and applications. We used this model to examine the costs of provider-tethered, payer-tethered, third-party, and interoperable PHRs. Our model projects that on a per-person basis, third-party PHRs will be the most expensive followed by inter operable PHRs, and then provider-tethered PHRs and payer-tethered PHRs are the least expensive. Data interfaces are a major cost driver, thus these findings underscore the need for standards development and use in the implementation ofPHR systems.
authors.affiliation: Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Sapna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Sapna S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Kaelber
authors.forename: David Charles
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Kaelber
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vincent
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Blackford
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Middleton
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008404:Massachusetts; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000191:economics*; D018803:Models, Economic