Empower
An electronic Personal Health Record (PHR) is a tool that allows patients to access and update their health information. EMPOWER is more than a PHR – it is a data repository based on the Continuity of Care (CCR) record that provides clinicians and patients with the ability to know “what, where, when, how, and who else was involved” within a healthcare encounter. It also allows patients to give consent to various other parties such as physicians and family members to view their personal health information, to know who has accessed their records, and when coupled with CONNECT, provides a true Health Information Exchange (HIE).
A Patient-Controlled Health Record
EMPOWER is a truly patient-controlled Health Record.
Patients control the flow of information between clinicians. Patients explicitly grant access
to their health information (and revoke it) as they see fit. All access is tracked by user ID
so that a patient knows who looked at what and when it occurred.
EMPOWER is designed to empower patients. EMPOWER is designed to allow physicians
(or other health care providers) to update patient health information and enables patients
to annotate those clinical details as needed.
With EMPOWER, physicians’ offices, clinics and hospitals that support the exchange of CCR
or HL7 documents can load documents into the repository. Once loaded, records are made
available to participating clinicians by the patient.
The Continuity of Care Record
The Continuity of Care Record (CCR) is a widely accepted standard that provides a means
for clinicians to communicate about the health of the patient, with the permission of the
patient, and allows the patient to see (but not change) the relevant portions of that
conversation. A large percentage of Electronic Health Records on the market can produce
this document, which, in laymen’s terms, describes nearly all of the clinical and demographic
details associated with an encounter.
EMPOWER uses the CCR to support communication between clinicians, and as the basis
of its clinical repository, which is a key differentiator between it and other PHR-like systems.
With the addition of CONNECT, we can support a variety of messaging protocols, including HL7.
Facilitating physician adoption
We strive to produce a solution that eliminates any obstacles to physician acceptance,
including those who have primarily paper-based practices. For physicians who rely on paper
records, we offer a web-based interface to create clinical records as well as the ability to fax
paper documents, and have images of those documents attached to the patient’s history.
Key Features
• Allows patients to view, annotate, and authorize access to their health information
• Allows physicians to automatically upload patient information in a variety of ways
• Facilitates bi-directionally encrypted communication between the patient and the clinician
• 24/7 secure access to the patient record
Key Benefits
• Engages the patient in their own health care
• Provides a conduit of information between clinicians, facilitating collaboration
• Empowers providers, patients, and the community
• Is the foundation of a Health Information Exchange
• Offers a precise view of the health of the patient
• Overcomes physician adoption issues
• Ensures no negative impact to the daily workloads of clinicians