Preface


Common and widespread Internet access changes the relationship between pa-
tients and health care providers, both in areas with well-developed and less
developed care systems. The future of efficient healthcare relies on the compe-
tent, informed and self-caring patients. Personal Health Record (PHR) systems
are emerging and strive to become a patient empowering tool that supports the
patient in collecting and sharing relevant health information and thereupon take
more active control over his own health situation.
   The major goal of the ISePHR 2006 symposium, held in conjunction with
HelsIT 2006, in Trondheim, Norway, was to bring together users, researchers
and developers, from both industry and academia, to study, explore and discuss
the opportunities and challenges posed by electronic personal health records.
The articles in these proceedings are extended versions of a selection of the
papers from the original symposium. The articles address several aspects of PHR
systems, from technological foundations, generic systems to specific systems for
particular diagnosis and symptoms.
   William Crawford gives an overview of the use of personal health records,
and how a great variety of systems are referred to as personal health records.
He then described how personal health records can be developed, and how fu-
ture personal health records are a shared effort between patients, health care
providers and software vendors. The author then describes six major personal
health record implementations, ranging from paper based to Internet powered
portals. Finally, he describes how the Indivo platform fits into the world of per-
sonal health records.
    Mikhaila Burgess et al. investigate a vertical search portal to facilitate per-
sonalisation and specialization of online information searches. In particular, they
address the two main challenges to using information: information overload and
the quality of information. They describe a Personal Health Gateway, which as-
sists people in finding the best available information. Further, they describe how
this search portal can be integrated into a personal health record.
    Jakob Valen addresses how research based development though computer
technology is needed to optimise psychological psychiatric services. He proposes
a solution to some of the deficiencies of today’s status, in particular with respect
to four main areas: assessment and monitoring, treatment matching and booking,
provider supervision, and teaching systems for treatment providers.
   Frode Laugen describes the PAT-C, which is a computerised tool for self-
assessment of subjective symptoms. The PAT-C system has been developed and
used for palliative care throughout the last five years. The system is now un-
dergoing a further development, in particular with regard to the emergence of
personal health records. The author describes some of the work that will be
undertaken in order to create the PAT-C the application they envision.
    Torstein Jensen et al. describe an implementation of a PHR system based
on the openly available Indivo framework and discuss issues regarding adapting
such a generic architecture to adhere to specific Norwegian conditions and EHR
standards.
    We would like to thank the authors and participants for their contributions
to the symposium, without whom these proceedings would never have been pos-
sible.




September 2006                        Anders Kofod-Petersen, Terje Brasethvik
                             Organisation


ISePHR 2006 is organised by the Norwegian Centre of Electronic Health Record
(NSEP), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in coop-
eration with the Norwegian Centre for Informatics in Health and Social Care
(KiTH).


Program Committee
Conference Chair: Øystein Nytrø (NTNU)

Program Chair:     Anders Kofod-Petersen (NSEP)

Committee

Terje Brasethvik (NSEP)
Anders Grimsmo (NSEP)
Arild Faxvaag (Faculty of Medicine, NTNU)
Marius Mikalsen (SINTEF ICT)
Per A. Frydenborg (Sunnaas Hospital)
Arzu Baloglu (University of Marmara, Istanbul)


Sponsoring Institutions

Norwegian Centre for Informatics in Health and Social Care, Trondheim, Norway
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Norwegian Centre of Electronic Health Record, Trondheim, Norway.




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