Passion For PHRs This Past Earth Day

When I first envisioned Zweena, and the role the company would play in helping individuals and families better manage and protect their health with online personal health records (PHRs), I was compelled and excited by how Zweena could empower consumers and create more positive health outcomes.

On Earth Day last Friday, I was reminded of another reason I am passionate about Zweena and digital personal health records. It is estimated that American Hospitals could save 1320 tons of paper each year using entirely electronic medical records. Given it takes 24 trees to make a ton (2,000 pounds) of typical office paper, a world in which all health records were digital would save nearly 32,000 trees each year.

As consumers we have an ability to push the envelope on change (and in fact get rid of envelopes and paper health records altogether). While we have no ability to control how fast the hospitals in America adopt digitized health records, we certainly have control on how we share and manage our own health records with the providers we work with. In fact, we may even be able to inspire them to adopt digital health records faster.