Barriers To Adoption
Despite the need to centralize patient information, PHR adoption has been very low. A study was carried out in an effort to assess the functionality and utility of online PHRs. An abstraction from real-life case of a patient suffering from a thyroid condition was utilized to create various online PHRs. The outputs generated were examined for accuracy and completeness of clinical information. A team of researchers identified 19 websites offering different versions of PHRs. To evaluate the PHRs, researchers identified criteria based on their promotional advertisements. Ideally, centralized PHRs should help patients relate accurate history during clinical encounters, check for drug interactions, eliminate unnecessary duplication of laboratory tests and diagnostic studies, and serve as an information hub for patients’ health management. An analysis of web-based PHR applications showed that most websites did provide access to personal medical information, however each demonstrated limited capacity in a different way:
From the 19 sites examined, four were found to be specific to certain diseases only and were therefore excluded from the study. Another four were excluded for reasons such as recurrent technical problems or connections to a specific hospital’s information system. The remaining 11 sites did not provide patients with sufficient guidance as to how they should enter personal data. Some of the sites allowed patients to select medical conditions from categorized lists which did not cover the patients’ complete health condition while others allowed free text entry. To formulate medication history, sites that required patients to choose medication from lists requested them to enter a wide range of descriptive information for each medication such as prescribed dose, administration frequency, start date, name of pharmacy that issued the medication and name of provider that prescribed the medication. With respect to laboratory tests, only two allowed patients to import results from outside sources. From these two sites, only one was functional. Not every site allowed patients to enter insurance coverage information. Majority of the sites required patients to enter date and results of diagnostic tests.
Most people do not keep record of minute details of their healthcare experiences and therefore find it difficult to make use of web-based PHRs. Overall, the sites selected for evaluation offered limited functionality to the general public. Low adoption of web-based PHRs can be a direct result of limitations in these applications’ data entry, validation and information display methods. PHR development should be guided by ample patient-oriented research in future.
Read more about this topic: Personal Health Record
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