Personal health records (PHRs) are an important resource to help practices provide patient-centred care. Currently, the most common functions performed by PHRs include record keeping, secure messaging, and appointment scheduling and bill payment. Yet, other PHR features could help facilitate patient engagement in their medical care, including use of plain English depictions of clinical data, motivational messages to seek needed care, educational resources, decision aids and resources and tools to support and guide care.
There are many reasons. If you have ever had a major illness or disease with multiple providers working on your care and treatment, then you know why it is important to have control over your own personal health records and information.
Important points to know about a Personal Health Record:
- You should always have access to your complete health information.
- A PHR may be separate from and does not normally replace the legal medical record of any provider.
- You should have control over how your health information is accessed, used, and disclosed.
- Information in your PHR should be accurate, reliable, and complete.
Focus on Those Patients Who Are Most Likely to Use PHRs:
Age, income, and education level don’t impact a patient’s willingness to use a PHR. Rather; a recent study found that of those who are willing to use those, 65 percent self-reported a high health literacy rate. These patients want to be actively involved in their own healthcare. Therefore, they may be more likely to use a PHR as a tool to do so.
Among the survey highlights:
- As a result of their PHR, users cite taking steps to improve their own health, knowing more about their health care, and asking their doctors questions they would not otherwise have asked.
- Although higher-income individuals are the most likely to have used a PHR, lower-income adults, those with chronic conditions, and those without a college degree are more likely to experience positive effects of having their information accessible online.
- Two-thirds of the public remain concerned about the privacy and security of their health information, but the majority of those who are using a PHR are not very worried about the privacy of the information contained in their PHR.
- Most PHR users and nonusers say we should not let privacy concerns stop us from learning how HIT can improve health care.
- More than half of adults are interested in using online applications to track health-related factors, and almost half are interested in medical devices that can be connected to the Internet.
- Of those who do not have a PHR, 40% express interest in using one.