Are there drawbacks to PHRs?

Building a complete health record takes some time. You have to collect and enter all your health information. Only a minority of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurance companies can send information electronically to a PHR that isn't part of a patient portal.

In most cases, you will have to update your PHR manually each time you see the doctor, fill a prescription, have a test or go to the hospital.

Even if you use a patient portal, you still need to review the information that's added to it. The process of transferring health data electronically isn't always perfect and mistakes can happen.