JHiM, Summer 2009 issue, focuses on Personal Health Records
Journal of Healthcare Information Managementm (JHiM), Summer 2009 issue, carries four articles on Personal Health Records. Note: Full text available to HIMSS members or by subscription only. You can link to JHiM summaries of Summer 2009 articles here. My summaries are below generally based on article subheads.

Editor’s Report: Personal Health Records—Ready for Prime Time? (pdf) (subscription only)
by Richard D. Lang, EdD
Defines 6 types of Personal Health Records: vendor-based, provider-based, payor-based, HIE-based, portable digital file, and hybrid. Reviews value, disadvantages, challenges, and technical issues. Lang says he “believes PHRs will reach their potential value only by fully implementing the EMR.”

Assessing HIE Stakeholder Readiness for Consumer Access:
Lessons Learned from the NHIN Trial Implementation (pdf) (subscription only) 
by Brian E. Dixon, MPA; Theda Miller, BS; and J. Marc Overhage, MD, PhD
Based on study of Indianapolis area participants in Indiana Network of Patient Care (INPC). Indiana has earned a reputation as one of the states with most advanced Health IT applications.

Personal Touch: Personal Health Records for Consumers of Healthcare (pdf) (subscription only)
by Mary N Gerard, MD; Mike Cohen; and Regina Greer-Smith FACHE
Based on review of key articles on PHRs and experiences in Chicago area. Includes case study of consumer user, examines patient control of information, patient portals in Chicago, and reviews content issues, disease management tools, exchange of information between patient and providers, and barriers and  strategies for consumer use.

Interoperability of Electronic Health Records and Personal Health Records: Key Interoperability Issues Assdociated with Information Exchange (pdf) (subscription only)
by Simone Pringle and Alex Lippitt
Based on Chicago area experiences, this article deals with data reconciliation, workflow, and implementation issues for interoperability. Summarizes roles of organizations involved in technical implementation connecting PHRs and EHRs including, HITSP, CCHIT, IHE, AHIC, The Markle Foundation Personal Health Working Group, and Health Record Banking Alliance.

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Integrated Personal Health Records:
Transformative Tools for Consumer-Centric Care
By Don Detmer, Meryl Bloomrosen, Brian Raymond and Paul Tang
Published in October 2008 by BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, article grew out of September 2006 roundtable convened by Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy,  American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) with three goals involving potential of integrated PHRs, barriers to realizing potential, and framework for action. The references can prove as interesting as the paper.
Link to html version: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/8/45
Link to pdf version.