BOSTON – Someday it will be routine for physicians and their patients to use personal health records. But the companies building those engines aren't taking that for granted.

Officials from Google Health, Dossia, WebMD and Microsoft discussed ways to engage both physicians and consumers during the Center for Connected Health symposium Monday in Boston.

One of the chief concerns among users, of course, is trust. Physicians wonder if they can trust the information. Consumers wonder if their private data will remain confidential - safe from snoops and identity thieves.

Technology has already made the information more secure by converting the data to digital form from paper, said Grad Conn, senior director for Microsoft Health Solutions.

"You can tell whether it's been broken or altered," he said, and the systems all have audit trails.

Craig Froude, executive vice president for WebMD Health Services, said personal health records on his company's platform are accessed through either WebMD's secure Web site or a participating health plan's site - all of which meet HIPAA rules for privacy and security.

Jerry Lin, product manager for Google Health, suggested that engaging physicians is a "nut not cracked yet."

"I have physicians say 'I'm afraid of too much data,'" Conn said. To engage physicians, he said, will require an understanding that using PHRs will provide them with better decision-making tools.