Sharing Data in Patient-Facing Software

One of the most difficult challenges for any patient-facing system is whether and how to allow sharing between its users. Most people simply do not care that much about their privacy, as evidenced by their utter lack of outrage toward Facebook, which regularly flouts its ability to change its privacy policies and privacy architecture. But most people view Facebook as part of the public sphere, and make different assumptions regarding their health information. For the most part, PHR systems place greater technical controls on the exchange of health information. Users must make obvious and significant choices when they decide to share with other users.

We will discuss issues related to children having PHR records, and the laws that cover PHR systems in the discussion of health IT regulations LINK. But for now it is enough to know that most typical PHR systems, especially the platforms already mentioned, have spent considerable energy ensuring basic privacy functionality.