The short definition
A personal health record (PHR) is a health history that you create and maintain. An electronic health record (EHR) belongs to a provider; a patient portal is a window into one provider's slice of it. A PHR is the only version that spans every clinic you've ever visited.
Three things a portal will never hold
- Care from other providers — a portal ends at that organisation's boundary.
- Day-to-day detail: how severe a symptom was, how many days it lasted, whether the medicine helped.
- Context: sleep, stress, travel and diet around the time a problem began.
The checklist
- Current medicines: name, dose, frequency, start date
- Allergies with the actual reaction
- Chronic conditions and past surgeries
- Hospital admissions with dates and discharge summaries
- Lab results and scans, filed on the date taken
- Vaccinations and next dose due
- Family medical history
- Emergency details: blood group, contact, insurance
Keeping it alive
The failure mode is always the same: a big organising session, then nothing for a year. Pick a system where a new entry takes under ten seconds, and log on the day something happens rather than reconstructing it later.
That's what Health Memory is built around — quick logs for symptoms, medicines, visits, vitals and mood, all landing on one searchable timeline you own.