Aetna on the Move with PHRs: Control of Information = Control of Transformation

Posted on | January 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Aetna on the Move with PHRs: Control of Information = Control of Transformation

Aetna’s CareEngine-powered Personal Health Record (PHR) software will be available to 1 million members this quarter …

Computerworld magazine says Aetna is about to offer its 15 million members online access to their health care information. Aetna’s CareEngine-powered Personal Health Record (PHR) software will be available to 1 million members this quarter and to the remaining 14 million members in the 2nd quarter of 2007. The software will tie Aetna subscribers back to disease management programs, identify potential drug interactions and likely mine the cost/benefit landscape.

Clearly, the managed care industry and its employer customers are leveraging health care IT adoption. The benefit? A wealth of data offers the potential to improve decision making and foster advance planning. The risk? Potential tilting and bias toward cost and away from personalization and choice, and the use of information to drive a wedge between the people and the people caring for the people rather than build mutual trust and confidence in support of relationship-based care. Whoever controls the purpose, manner, and distribution of information will control the ultimate destination of health care transformation. High stakes here — namely, the future of the patient-physician relationship.