Assignment:
Personal Health Records
Consider the PHRs of today. Patient-accessible health records are currently web-based and have seen little consumer use when compared to the total U.S. population. The VA has had notable success with its veterans logging on; however, other web-based portals have struggled. Google Health, a free PHR site, shut its services down effective January of 2012 citing too few and inconsistent users to maintain the site.
PHRs can eliminate the plethora of patient charts and help to assimilate a lifetime of medical documentation. What do you think will motivate society to fully embrace these electronic resources?
To prepare:
• Reflect on the information presented in the Learning Resources, focusing on personal health records and patient portals as used by the VA.
• Consider your personal and professional experiences with personal health records and patient portals.
• What benefits, concerns, and challenges do these types of systems bring to the health care profession? How might they influence your professional practice and your patient's health outcomes?
• Explore one patient portal. If you do not have access to one through your practice setting, utilize a free service such as FollowMyHealth https://followmyhealth.jardogs.com/ or Microsoft HealthVault https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/healthvault/.
• Assess the kind of information that you would put in your own personal health record. What concerns (if any) would you have about the security of your personal information in a personal health record?
• Think about your stance on the value of PHRs. Do you believe that every individual should be required to maintain a PHR?
• What capabilities and/or features might entice people to use them?
• What factors might inhibit people from using them?
Post a cohesive response that addresses the following:
1) Appraise your selected personal health patient portal.
2) Evaluate the influence of PHRs on health care delivery and clinical practice.
3) Take a position for or against mandating PHRs. Justify your stance addressing the following points:
1. Personal health records via patient portals are part of Meaningful Use 2 and the debate over mandating them is essentially over.
2. What capabilities and/or features might motivate individuals to maintain PHRs?
3. What factors may deter individuals from signing up for this service?
4. What concerns might you and your patients have about a PHR's capability to securely maintain personal information?
5. How might PHRs influence your professional practice and your patients' health outcomes, positively or negatively?