Healthcare consumers are only too aware of the fragmentation of the current healthcare system. There is ample evidence of the need for consumers to take a more active role in their healthcare, starting with a comprehensive personal health record controlled and maintained by the consumer. The Personal Health Record (PHR) is an Internet-based set of tools that allows people to access and coordinate their lifelong health information and make appropriate parts of it available to those who need it.

If the PHR is a tool that promotes patient empowerment and supports the patient’s engagement in their own healthcare, then nurses as healthcare professionals and patient advocates are obligated to become familiar with the technology and to promote its use when the technology is available and the patient is amenable.  Education in the health professions for all disciplines should include information about PHRs as well as methods for teaching patients how to use them.  One of the primary objectives of TIGER’s Consumer Empowerment and Personal Health Records Collaborative team was to make information available to nurses about PHRs and to encourage inclusion of this content into nursing curricula.