The Markle Foundation Personal Health Technology Council, convened to launch the Personal Health Technology Initiative, completed its mandate in December 2006 with the publication of the newest Connecting for Health Common Framework document on "networked Personal Health Records (PHRs)" titled, Connecting Americans To Their Health Care: A Common Framework for Networked Personal Health Information (PDF, 1.6MB). This discussion paper describes a vision for how consumers can establish secure online connections to multiple sources of their health information and services.

As set forth in the "networked PHR" paper, Connecting for Health has convened two new work groups to explore policy questions that arise from this vision:

• The Connecting for Health Work Group on Consumer Authentication Policies for Networked Personal Health Information will develop recommendations for confirming the identity of individual consumers on a health information network.
• The Connecting for Health Work Group on Consumer Access Policies for Networked Personal Health Information will recommend other critical policies such as privacy, consent, secondary uses, breach notification, etc.