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This paper examines existing research on the topic of personal health records (PHRs). Areas covered include PHR/patient portal, recordkeeping, preservation planning, access and provider needs for future reuse of health information. Patient and physician PHR use and functionality, as well as adoption facilitators and barriers, are also reviewed.

The paper engages in a review of relevant literature from a variety of subject domains, including personal information management, medical informatics, medical literature and archives and records management literature.

The review finds that PHRs are extensions of electronic records. In addition, it finds a lack of literature within archives and records management that may lead to a less preservation-centric examination of the new PHR technologies that are desirable for controlling the lifecycle of these important new records-type.

Although the issues presented by PHRs are issues that can best be solved with the use of techniques from records management, there is no current literature related to PHRs in the records management literature, and that offered in the medical informatics literature treats the stewardship aspects of PHRs as insurmountable. This paper offers an introduction to the aspects of PHRs that could fruitfully be examined in archives and records management.

This paper aims to investigate the perception of Egyptian patients about the use of personal health records (PHRs).

A quantitative research methodology was adopted in the form of a survey.

Over one-third of the selected sample was found to use PHRs. The study found that the use of PHRs by Egyptian patients was moderate. All PHRs users confirmed that they were very interested in the doctors’ notes and the laboratory reports recorded in their records. A very large number of PHR users confirmed that their use of these records was at least fairly easy for them and all of them confirmed that the use of these records was at least fairly useful. Above two-third of PHR users answered at least “somewhat yes” that their PHRs were accurate and over half of them answered at least “somewhat yes” that their PHRs were complete. The highest percentage of PHR users agreed that the use of PHRs would enhance their trust in their doctors and nurses. Close to half of PHR users expressed some concern about sharing their records. Violation of privacy in the use of these medical records, followed by the complexity of using them, as well as lack of awareness about them, was also significant to PHR users.

Understanding Egyptian patients perceptions of using PHRs may significantly aid in eliminating barriers and accelerating the adoption and use of these records to improve patient care.

This paper is based on a study done to investigate patient safety in two of the largest hospitals in the Maldives, and part of that study was on challenges faced by nurses in using electronic health records (EHRs) to enhance patient safety. Patient safety is a vital component of an established patient safety culture (PSC).

This study was conducted among nurses who also work as patient safety champions/link nurses from hospitals in Central Malé area, in the Maldives, by using focus group discussions. A purposive sampling technique was adopted, and five nurses from each hospital participated in the discussion.

Key findings included poor usability of EHRs; importance of training to use EHRs; and importance of information sharing.

The implications for positive social change include establishing an EHR, which has the capacity to collaborate with the National Health Information Network while providing access to every patient in the Maldives.

EHR systems can help in collaboration among health-care professionals resulting in better patient outcomes which can contribute to establishing a PSC. Most of the patient documentation is done as paperwork in this clinical area; EHRs can contribute to minimizing paperwork and contributing quality time for better patient care. Establishing an EHR which has the capacity to collaborate with the national health information network while providing access to every patient in the Maldives.

Establishing an EHR which has the capacity to collaborate with the national health information network while providing access to every patient in the Maldives.

Nurses are the bridge between patients and clinicians during patient care and therefore require as much information as possible to improve patient outcomes. While the EHRs in these two hospitals were electronic patient records (EPRs) developed by staff within the hospitals for their own use, the findings from such a bottom-up approach to develop and use EPRs can be relevant, to ensure patient safety targets of EHRs are met.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the threats to patient privacy inherent in the movement to reduce health care costs by digitizing health care information.

The paper applies relevant organizational theories to the health care information privacy arena, and predicts different privacy outcomes depending on the model organizations adopt to manage their information processing practices.

Public policy makers who value preservation of patient health care information privacy, can predict the relative safety of information based on the organizational model used by companies which handle that data. Propositions advanced by these theories to explain business processes are reviewed to the extent they help explore the relationships between the users and managers of the digitized health records, and the privacy of the patients' health‐records. The paper offers a series of implications for marketers based on the framework.

The findings are most applicable to health care systems that do not already sacrifice privacy in the name of economy.

The findings can be used to insure the security of health care information.

The paper addresses a recent trend motivated by the need to make health care accessible to more people. Rising health care costs have forced lawmakers and marketers to seek more efficient processes to reduce costs. One unintended consequence is that economies sacrifice privacy.

This paper aims to report some findings of a study that investigated health information systems (HISs) in Namibia with a view of establishing the nature of these systems and coming up with recommendations on how these could be enhanced.

This study applied a mixed methods research approach, using interviews and survey questionnaire to collect data. Survey data were analysed for descriptive statistics using SPSS and data from interviews were analysed applying content analysis for data analysis.

The findings of this study indicate fragmented HISs resulting in duplication of diagnosis, tests and treatment. The findings show that there were errors in capturing data into the systems, which could compromise the reliability of the data and compromise service delivery.

This study was limited to two (Khomas and Oshana) of the fourteen regions in Namibia; therefore, further studies could look at other regions, as the study findings cannot be generalised to the entire country.

The findings and recommendations, particularly those relating to the public health sector, could inform policies and procedures, especially those relating to the patient health passport (card), and the way health information is shared within and across health sectors.

This study focused on health information sharing, whereas a previous study on HISs concentrated on quality of healthcare.

Examines issues and concerns surrounding the management of patient information in the form of health records, such as accessibility, privacy, security, confidentiality, ownership and eventual disposal. Discusses the effects of health reform on the management of patient information, especially regionalization in Saskatchewan, and advances in technology. Concludes that it is incumbent on health‐care professionals to show leadership and set guidelines since technology will outstrip legislation.

This paper aims to design a secure and seamless system that ensures quick sharing of health-care data to improve the privacy of sensitive health-care data, the efficiency of health-care infrastructure, effective treatment given to patients and encourage the development of new health-care technologies by researchers. These objectives are achieved through the proposed system, a “privacy-aware data tagging system using role-based access control for health-care data.”

Health-care data must be stored and shared in such a manner that the privacy of the patient is maintained. The method proposed, uses data tags to classify health-care data into various color codes which signify the sensitivity of data. It makes use of the ARX tool to anonymize raw health-care data and uses role-based access control as a means of ensuring only authenticated persons can access the data.

The system integrates the tagging and anonymizing of health-care data coupled with robust access control policies into one architecture. The paper discusses the proposed architecture, describes the algorithm used to tag health-care data, analyzes the metrics of the anonymized data against various attacks and devises a mathematical model for role-based access control.

The paper integrates three disparate topics – data tagging, anonymization and role-based access policies into one seamless architecture. Codifying health-care data into different tags based on International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes and applying varying levels of anonymization for each data tag along with role-based access policies is unique to the system and also ensures the usability of data for research.

This mixed methods multiple case study examines the knowledge, understanding, and awareness of 25 health board/facility oversight managers and 20 health professional association directors about privacy and security issues important to achieving health information exchange (HIE) in the state of Nebraska. Within case analyses revealed that health board/facility oversight managers were unaware of key elements of the federal agenda; their concerns about privacy encompassed broad definitions both of what constituted a “health record” and “regulations centeredness.” Alternatively, health professional association leaders were keenly aware of national initiatives. Despite concerns about HIE, they supported information exchange believing that patient care quality and safety would improve. Cross-case analyses revealed a perceptual disconnect between board/facility oversight managers and professional association leaders; however, both favored HIE. Understanding state-level stakeholder perceptions helps us further understand our progress toward achieving the national health information interoperability goal. There is an ongoing need to assure adequate patient privacy protection. Licensure and facility boards at the state level are likely to have a major role in the assurance of patient protections through facility oversight and provider behavior. The need for these boards to take an active role in oversight of patient rights and protections is imminent. Similarly, professional associations are the major vehicles for post-graduate education of practicing health professionals. Their engagement is essential to maintaining health professions knowledge. States will need to understand and engage both of these key stakeholders to make substantial progress in moving the HIE agenda forward.