Answers to common questions about PHR Health Records.
All your health data lives locally in a private, sandboxed database on your iPad. PHR has no cloud account and never sends your records to our servers. The only time your data leaves the device is in a backup — and you choose where that backup goes.
Go to Settings → Backup in the app and pick where the backup goes — an external drive, the Files app, or iCloud Drive. You can run a backup manually or set it to happen automatically. Either way, you choose the location, so you stay in control of where your data lives. We recommend keeping backups current so your data is safe if you ever change devices.
Download PHR from the App Store on your new device. Go to Settings → Restore and point to your backup location. PHR will find your backed-up databases and let you restore them. Patient records will be automatically registered. Before committing, the Restore screen shows a compare table so you can see how the backup differs from what's currently on the device — rows where the current count is lower than the backup are flagged in red.
Yes. From Settings → Transfer Patient (Owner only), pick a patient and PHR creates a single .phrp file containing that patient's database and attachments. AirDrop, email, or any sharing method can move the file to the new iPad. Tapping the .phrp file on the destination opens PHR and offers to import it.
Yes. PHR supports up to 10 patients per device. Each person gets their own separate database, and the Owner of the device can use the patient switcher in the sidebar to move between family members.
Most patient portals (MyChart, Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, and others) let you download a Continuity of Care Document (CCDA) — an XML file with your records. Open it in PHR via Settings → Import CCDA. PHR has separate importers for Lab Results, Medications, Conditions, Allergies, Immunizations, Procedures, Implants, Imaging Reports, Patient Info, and Contacts. You review what's coming in before any data is saved, and any import batch can be undone from the Import History.
Seven modules support attachments: Reports, Procedures, Conditions, Legal Documents, Treatments, Insurance, and Visits. Each accepts the file types relevant to that module (PDFs, images, Word documents, etc.). Files up to 25 MB are copied into PHR's sandboxed storage and included in your local backups. Files larger than that are turned away, so every attachment is fully self-contained — there are no links to outside files that could go missing.
When you tap Interaction Check on the Medications screen, PHR sends the names of your active medications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's openFDA database (api.fda.gov) to check for known interactions. Only medication names are sent — no personal information. PHR also uses the NIH Clinical Table Search Service (clinicaltables.nlm.nih.gov) for drug-name lookup when you're entering a new medication. You can save the interaction report as a landscape PDF and share it with your pharmacist.
It depends on which AI service you pick. Perplexity opens in Safari and doesn't require an account or subscription. Google's Gemini has a free tier with no credit card required — enough for the light, everyday use most personal users need. Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI), and xAI (Grok) each require a paid subscription — you supply your own API key and the vendor bills you directly — but for typical personal use the cost is small and goes a long way. PHR doesn't charge for or resell AI service.
Ask AI sends your question — and any file you attach — to the AI service exactly as typed. Names, dates, or other identifying details are sent through unchanged, so review your question before sending. Health Check is the opposite: it builds a de-identified snapshot of your record (only age, sex, height, weight, and the categories you check) and sends that for analysis. No name, date of birth, address, phone, email, or record numbers leave the device during a Health Check.
Yes. PHR can export your data in two ways: as a multi-section PDF report (great for sharing with doctors) or as an Excel spreadsheet with one worksheet per data section. Go to Settings → Export or use the Print menu.
PHR is built for iPad and is available now on the Apple App Store. The app is designed for the larger screen to provide the best experience working with detailed health records and reports.
PHR is a personal-use application. It is not a Covered Entity under HIPAA and is not intended for use by healthcare providers or insurers. Because your data never leaves your device, there is no server-side data to protect — you have full control.