By Neil Versel

May 20, 2008 | FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—Could the cell phone succeed where grand plans for regional health information organizations (RHIOs) so far have failed? Could it be the format that convinces millions of consumers to adopt and maintain personal health records (PHRs) after smart cards, USB drives, and Web sites have elicited a profound yawn from the public?

The Medical Records Institute thinks so.

“By itself, I think it’s going to be the biggest change in the last 10 years,” chief executive C. Peter Waegemann said before the opening of Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR), the Boston-based organization’s annual conference.

At the opening session of the 24th TEPR here, Waegemann unveiled the TEPR Cell Phone Project, an eight-month effort to prove the worth of the humble handset as a conduit of interoperability in health care. “In the next year, I believe more than 10 million patients will have a PHR on cell phones, safe and secure,” Waegemann boldly forecast.

“This by itself could be a major revolution.”

Using the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) standard, originally championed by the Medical Records Institute (MRI) and now recognized by ASTM International, the Cell Phone Project will attempt to demonstrate how consumers can use their phones to transfer confidential medical and insurance data between health care providers, with access controlled only by patients themselves.

The MRI envisions this scenario: “A patient on his way to a clinic calls in advance to send all insurance and relevant medical information from his cell phone. The patient experiences only a short stop at the front desk and is confident that the physician knows his current medication list, allergies, and major diagnoses.”

Waegemann noted that the two most-hyped consumer health interoperability products unveiled or previewed in recent months, namely Microsoft Health Vault and Google Health, both follow the CCR standard. James Mault, director of new products and business development in Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address here Tuesday afternoon on the topic of a “patient-centric health ecosystem,” likely to include the cell phone.

The TEPR exhibit hall—rather sparse with slightly more than 100 vendors—is featuring a demonstration of interoperability via cell phone, and attendees are being encouraged to participate.

Starting June 1, a coalition of vendors, providers, payers, and health care purchasers will work on extending the capabilities of the cell phone in health care. Waegemann says plans include making the cell phone the preferred means of communication between patients and health care facilities and, as is already happening in some quarters, using cell phones to help with disease-specific care.

This work will culminate with a demonstration of these advanced functionalities and the release of a report on user experiences at the 25th annual TEPR, next February in Palm Springs, Calif.

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