The Personal Health Record (PHR)

The population of seniors (people aged 65 and above) is constantly increasing as more seniors now live longer than was common decades ago. Apparently, this increase in life expectancy has not come without a cost as seniors are currently responsible for 80% of hospital bed occupancy, 83% of prescription drug use and 55% of emergency room visit recorded for people with chronic disease conditions (see [2]). Even when seniors are not chronically ill, they are susceptible to chronic diseases like arthritis, asthma, diabetes, heart conditions, hearing impairment, hypertension, ulcer, vision impairment, and so on [34] which informs their need for constant care. Besides the commensurate increase in pressure on the health care system and the difficulties …show more content…
The Personal Health Record (PHR) is a key player in this ecosystem. It is an information system that help patients (or their caregivers) personally keeps track of their health using some form of measurement like their blood sugar level, blood pressure, etc. in the convenience of their homes. PHR also makes available to patients facilities for secure communication with physicians, recording allergies, scheduling hospital visits, viewing and understanding test results and other health related documents, ample health information and other innovations that help make care very convenient [11, 20, 30, 38]. For seniors, the PHR has the capacity to improve their quality of life, independence and well-being [45] whether or not they suffer from chronic conditions, substantially increasing the chances of early detection of diseases and health problems [23] and reducing the cost of providing care …show more content…
The erstwhile digital divide will continue to close as baby boomers join in and even after they are completely assimilated. However, before we commence celebrating the imminent demise of the digital divide, questions remain about the extent to which current PHRs are capable of accommodating the demands of senior users taking into consideration the current lack of clearcut PHR specific usability guidelines to aid the designing of senior friendly PHRs, If PHR developers use existing senior-focused website usability guidelines for developing PHRs and whether these guidelines are suitable for evaluating PHRs. These are some questions current literature do not provide sufficient answers to. We therefore seek to “spark-off” the conversation on these issues and begin by assessing the level of “senior friendliness” of current