Providing personal health records in Malaysia: a portable prototype

Many of the current Malaysian healthcare information are still paper-based and standalone. Majority of the stand-alone systems which used to handle medical information systems do not utilize the Internet or any other real time technologies. Although there is several health information systems used in some of Malaysia's hospitals, none of these information systems handle health records. The progress of Health or Hospital Information Systems (HISs) has been very slow, and it is unlikely to increase much in the future. Health records are used to store individuals' health data, the data can be important at the time of need. Data management is an important step in maintaining health records but current data health management of healthcare systems in Malaysia is ineffective. Health data are scattered around health providers such as private clinics or government hospitals, individuals are unable to access their complete health records. Without a complete health record, medical officers are unable to grasp the full picture of individual's health, which lead to medical errors, drug interactions and unnecessary tests. Even with electronic health records, they are usually maintained in a computer with Internet connectivity. Countries like Malaysia have a lot of rural areas without internet access and computers are not that common to the people living in rural areas. However, a cellphone is a common device which is not only owned by many people living in Malaysia, but all around the world. PPHR (Portable Personal Health Record) is an application that can be installed in a cellphone and it is designed to manage personal health records. Extensions of the PPHR such as improving the accessibility, availability and usability have been made in this research to focus on Malaysian residents. This dissertation describes the importance of having a portable personal health record and proposes a solution to it. Design considerations are clearly stated and solutions meeting these considerations will be explained in details. This dissertation will also review the outcomes of the evaluation which is important to find out whether PPHR is useful and also the level of concern of individuals in Malaysia with regards to their health data.