Healthcare is badly in need of some cost-savings. A new study suggests that a change in the way we keep health records could save billions. Last week the industry got a look at a cost-benefit model for personal health records. According to the report, widespread use of PHRs could save the US healthcare industry between $13 and $21 billion a year.

The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), a nonprofit IT research center based at Partners HealthCare System in Boston, offers the projections in the study “The Value of Personal Health Records.” The study describes an evidence-based model that estimates the industry costs and benefits of four different PHR architectures. The study is the first of its kind to examine the different PHR architectures and show their direct cost savings to healthcare providers and payers, CITL officials say. (more…)

Project HealthDesign is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program to push the design of next-generation personal health records. Nine design teams received grants to develop forward-looking PHR prototypes that meet unique needs of different patient populations. The prototypes were demonstrated two weeks ago—RWJF has posted a webcast. (more…)

Google Health, which previewed in February (see the June print story “The Great PHRontier”), went live with relatively little fanfare on May 19. The launch doesn’t mean that the personal health record service is finalized, says Missy Krasner, Google Health product marketing manager. “We are just at the beginning,” she says. (more…)