A patient-centric taxonomy for personal health records (PHRs).

Today, the nascent field of personal health records (PHRs) lacks a comprehensive taxonomy that encompasses the full range of PHRs currently in existence and what may be possible. The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) has created a taxonomy that broadly defines a PHR as having both an infrastructure component, which allows for data viewing and sharing, and an application component, allowing for selfmanagement and information exchange. The taxonomy also accounts for different PHR architectures – provider, payer, third-party, or interoperable. This comprehensive taxonomy may help to define the field of PHRs and provide a framework for assessing PHR value.