Patients' empowerment of their personal health record requires strong traceability to guarantee patients health care security.

Giving patients power over their personal health record is an unavoidable evolution in all industrialized countries which will reflect their active participation in the management of their own health. This would lead to patients sharing management with health professionals, which would need traceability of the data provider to maintain trust and transparency. The systematic use of electronic signatures by medical practitioners will be essential to provide sufficient guarantees and to clearly determine who has added what in the PEHR.