Embracing an integrated personal health record for continuity of care.

There is a lack of information exchange for patients utilizing complementary and alternative therapies such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) combined with conventional western medicine. Siloed health information can lead to potential problems for safe, quality care and optimal health. The Continuity of Care Document (CCD) is intended to be a subset of health data to exchange between providers and foundational for personal health records (PHR). It is unknown, however, about the relevance of CCD to represent TCM data for information exchange across different health systems. Four clinical data elements and related standards in CCD were evaluated for relevance to TCM providers and adequacy to represent TCM data. Project results indicate that even though standardized TCM-specific terminology and coding are lacking, the CCD data elements and standards are relevant to TCM providers. Recommendations are made for an integrated PHR containing both conventional western medicine and TCM following the CCD standard.