An integrated personal health record would differ from a stand-alone personal health record such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault in that they would allow multiple providers to enter and use the data contained in the personal health record.

The data would flow from an electronic health record contained at the physician’s office to the personal health record. An integrated personal health record would also be able to interface with insurance providers, pharmacies and home diagnostic tools to afford the patient a comprehensive medical & diagnostic history.

Many in the health care field think that integrated personal health records would improve the overall quality of information provided by the patients, since the integrated health record would be populated by information directly from an electronic health record in the physician’s office. This would eliminate miscommunications, typos and missing data. It would also facilitate better communication between doctor and patient and give the patient better control over their medical information.

Many proponents of integrated personal health records think they would provide true portability of patient records. Several pilot programs are being tested with integrated personal health records. One such program the MyHealtheVet program administered by the Veteran’s Administration gives veterans access to a secure private electronic copy of the VA health information via the web. Veterans are allowed to enter data in certain parts of the record. They can also access health education materials and even give family members and other health care providers access to their information.

A similar program is in the works by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services their MyMedicare site will give patients web based tools to track their health care services. It will allow certain users to enter information into a personal health record provided by their health plans. This gives them one universal place to store all their information.

It is not only the government that is exploring integrated personal health records. Medical Informatics Engineering recently collaborated with Google Health to allow the Google employees to send their Google personal health records to the onsite health clinic's electronic health system. Using MIE’s WebChart EMR, all the information collected during the patients visit can then be sent from the clinic's electronic health record back to the patient’s personal health record.

If a patient sees a doctor outside of the onsite clinic, all the patient's pertinent information is stored in their personal health record, they simply have to take that information to the new doctor.

Integrated personal health records may be one way to facilitate portability and interoperability of electronic health information.