Personal Health Records: Beneficial or Burdensome for Patients and Healthcare Providers?

Personal health records (PHRs) have been mandated to be made available to patients to provide increased access to medical care information, encourage participation in healthcare decision making, and enable correction of errors within medical records. The purpose of this study was to analyze the usefulness of PHRs from the perspectives of patients and providers. The methodology of this qualitative study was a literature review using 34 articles. PHRs are powerful tools for patients and healthcare providers. Better healthcare results and correction of medical records have been shown to be positive outcomes of the use of PHRs. PHRs have also been shown to be difficult for patients to use and understand, and providers had concerns about correct information transferring to the portals and patients eliminating information from the record. Concerns regarding patient understanding of medical records, legal liability, and the response time required of providers were also identified. For the PHR to succeed in the US healthcare system, assurance that the information will be protected, useful, and easily accessed is necessary

Benefits and Barriers for Adoption of Personal Health Records

A Personal Health Record (PHR) is an electronic, universally available, lifelong resource of health information maintained by individuals. There are numerous potential benefits to PHRs, including improved patient-provider relationships, increased patient empowerment, and enhanced care safety, efficiency, coordination, and quality. However, privacy, security, cost, and adoption issues have been significant barriers to implementation. The purpose of this research was to determine how the use of PHRs affects patient outcomes, as well as to analyze benefits and barriers of adoption of PHRs. The methodology for the examination of the benefits and barriers to PHR implementation was conducted following the basic principles of a systematic review. From a total of 144 initial references 76 sources were deemed suitable for use in this research study. A series of issues have been repeatedly listed as key barriers to the use of PHRs by patients and physicians including, privacy and security concerns, costs, integrity, accountability, and health literacy. PHRs have given control to the consumer and have provided patients with autonomy and empowerment. Full intent of functionality and use of PHRs will occur when patients and providers believe the information is safe, accurate, reliable and applicable for improving health

“I don’t bother with the phone!”: Feeling Closer to Physician using Secure Messaging

This study explores the use of phone and secure messaging via an online patient portal in mediating the communication between patients and their healthcare providers. In analyzing the messages handling processes, we found that although both phone and secure messages were answered in similar manners, the interplay of the front- and back-end roles in collaborative work resulted in patients’ preference for secure messages in communication as they believed it offered direct and empowered communication experiences. This study offers insights on the choice of how different communication media affect patients’ perception toward the quality of the communication and patient-provider relationship.

Factors Affecting Patients’ Use of Electronic Personal Health Records

England has recently introduced a nationwide electronic personal health record (ePHR) called Patient Online. Although ePHRs are widely available, adoption rates of ePHRs are usually low. Understanding the factors affecting patients’ use of ePHRs is considered important to increase adoption rates and improve the implementation success of ePHRs. Therefore, the current study aims to examine the factors that affect patients’ adoption of ePHRs in England. A systematic review was conducted to identify factors that affect patients’ adoption of ePHRs. Then, the most common theories and models relevant to technology adoption and human behaviour were reviewed to select an appropriate theory and use it as a theoretical lens for examining the factors in the current study. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was selected and tailored to the context of ePHRs by including the most influential factors identified by the systematic review. A cross-sectional survey of 624 patients in four general practices in West Yorkshire was carried out to empirically examine the proposed model via structural equation modelling. The results showed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and perceived privacy and security were significant predictors of behavioural intention. The relationship between social influence and behavioural intention was not statistically significant. Both facilitating conditions and behavioural intention affected use behaviour. Performance expectancy was also a significant mediator of the effect of both effort expectancy and perceived privacy and security on behavioural intention. Eleven relationships were moderated by age, sex, income, education, ethnicity, and internet access. The proposed model accounted for 76% and 48% of the variance in behavioural intention and use behaviour, respectively. The current study makes a significant contribution by adapting and validating a theoretical model (UTAUT) in a new context (ePHRs). Further, this study contributes to practices by providing several implications for developers, marketers, and GP practices