Diversinet enhances the PHR with its mobiHealth Wallet

Diversinet is looking to jump-start the struggling personal health record market with the mobiHealth Wallet, a Blue Button-compatible platform for downloading, entering, managing and sharing health information.

The Toronto-based company is unveiling the new offering at this week's mHealth Summit at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C., where company CEO Hon Pak, and Chief Health Informatics Officer Susan Hull will be participating in a number of panel discussions. Pak, speaking prior to the summit, said Diversinet is posed to overcome the challenges that past PHRs have faced by "filling in the gaps."

“Mobile healthcare is evolving and bringing forth innovation at an unprecedented pace,” Pak said in a press release issued on Dec. 3. “However, most mobile solutions offered today will not be sustainable or effective without a common framework for interoperability and patient- or consumer-centered engagement. (The) mobiHealth Wallet makes it easy for patients to download and manage their data from various sources and to enter profile and survey information to be shared with providers and other caregivers.”

According to Pak and Hull, the mobiHealth Wallet goes beyond the traditional PHR by adding unique health profiles, including preferences, lifestyle characteristics and social determinants. These types of "harmonized, patient-generated data elements," says Hull, aren't being collected now, but they provide key information with regard to a patient's exercise and wellness habits, much like the various credit cards in a person's wallet create a better idea of his or her preferences.

Pak says population health offers "the biggest bang for the buck" in healthcare, yet it isn't gaining traction because clinicians haven't been able to tackle changing behaviors. He feels the mobiHealth Wallet is a step in that direction because it allows the patient to model his or her profile based on behaviors and habits.

"You're going to be able to parse that data into meaningful fields of the PHR," says Hull.

The platform also allows the patient to manage his or her health information, an important facet in an age when few patients are seen by just one doctor.

“The reality is that patients see multiple providers in diverse settings over a lifetime,” he said in the press release. “While U.S. federal government initiatives are under way to achieve interoperability, the healthcare industry still has too much fragmentation of healthcare data, resulting in suboptimal care coordination. mobiHealth Wallet allows the patient to be the driver and gatekeeper by managing personal health information and sharing it with multiple providers and payers in ways that have not been available to date.”