Standardization of Personal Health Records in the Portable Health Clinic System.

A personal health record (PHR) is not only a collection of personal health data but also a personal healthcare and disease management tool for individual patients. Recently, PHRs have been considered indispensable tools for patient engagement in the area of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and have gained a special importance. Unfortunately, similar to several other developing countries, Bangladesh remains far behind in establishing a standard PHR system for the country despite the fact that the growth of NCDs is extremely high and accounts for approximately 70% of the total diseases experienced in the country. The Portable Health Clinic system, which has a PHR feature, was established in Bangladesh in 2010. This PHR system requires standardization for each country. The objective of this research is to standardize this PHR system with reference to the PHR system proposed by the Japanese Clinical Societies, which is a pioneer of work in this field in Asia.