Reports and Surveys

Are You Confident That Electronic Health Records Will Remain Private?

In: iHealthBeat ( http://www.ihealthbeat.org/ )
16 Oct 2008                                                      
Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates

In 2008, 62% of U.S. adults surveyed said they were not too confident or not at all confident that electronic health records would remain confidential, down from 69% in 2005, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates.

The survey also found that 12% of 2008 respondents said they were extremely or very confident that EHRs would remain confidential, compared with 10% of survey respondents in 2005.

Twenty-five percent of 2008 survey respondents said they were somewhat confident that EHRs would remain confidential, compared with 20% in 2005.

The 2008 survey is based on telephone interviews of 1,000 adults age 21 and older conducted between May 24 and June 30.

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates, "The 2008 Health Confidence Survey"

HIMSS Task Force Details Worldwide EHR Implementation Trends

in: iHealthBeat
09 Sep 2008

In a new report, a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society task force describes four common factors that affect electronic health record implementation worldwide, Healthcare IT News reports.
The HIMSS Global Enterprise Task Force reviewed EHR implementations at health care IT centers in 15 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
The report, titled "Electronic Health Records: A Global Perspective," evaluated the EHR projects based on security, quality, financial resources and implementation barriers.
The task force concluded that the four common factors affecting EHR projects are:

• Communication;
• Funding;
• Governance;
• Standardization and interoperability .

The report also details each country's EHR status, a review of achievements, encountered barriers and recommendations (Means, Healthcare IT News , 9/9).

The report is available online (.pdf)

Who Should Own Data Captured in Personal Health Records?

In: iHealthBeat ( http://www.ihealthbeat.org/ )
May 2008
Source: HIMSS ( www.himss.org/ )

Ninety-two percent of health care IT professionals said patients should own the data captured in personal health records, according to a survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Four percent of respondents said providers should own PHR data, while 1% said the company supplying the PHR should own the data.

The survey also found that nearly half of respondents said that privacy and security issues are the biggest barrier to the use of a PHR. Twenty-four percent of respondents said that the biggest barrier to PHR use is that their clinician does not use electronic records.

Thirty percent of respondents said they access a PHR, while 76% of respondents said they believe PHRs need to be integrated with an electronic health record to have value in patient treatment.

Results are based on an April online survey of 675 health care IT professionals.

REPORT: Consultation Workshop on Personal Health Systems (Tampere)

04 April 2008

This particular consultation workshop is the second of its kind concerning the area of Personal Health Systems (PHS) in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). The first event was organised in Luzern in February 2006 and provided inputs for the ICT WP of 2007-08. The objective of the current workshop in Tampere was to gather inputs for the ICT WP in the period 2009-2010, as far as the PHS research is concerned.

PHS is a relatively new concept, introduced in the 1990s. PHS are about disruptive eHealth solutions that place the individual citizen in the centre of the healthcare delivery process. PHS can bring significant benefits in terms of improved quality of care and cost reduction in patient management, especially through remote monitoring and management applications. PHS are seen as key components for bringing continuity of care in terms of location (extending care outside hospital settings to ordinary living environments) and time (e.g., continuous, anytime monitoring) and assisting the shift towards preventive, personalised and citizen-centred care .

Other types of consultations in PHS are also underway. A study on the application of robotics in healthcare is ongoing, aiming at providing inputs for the ICT WP in FP7 from 2011 and beyond. Moreover, a roadmap project, PHS2020, funded under an FP7 Support Action, is being carried out to provide inputs for PHS research in the ICT WP of FP7 from 2011 and beyond. Other consultations will be planned in the future.

Download Consultation Workshop on Personal Health Systems - Report (.pdf 393 KB)

Benefits of patient summaries and difficulties that need to be overcome to make use of these summaries in different countries

From: eHealth ERA Priority Topic Cluster/Patient Summaries
13 June 2007

The “Report” analyses the current state of developing electronic patient summaries in European Union Member States and beyond. It highlights the benefits of such summaries and also the difficulties that need to be overcome to make use of patient summaries in different countries. Electronic patient summaries are a key element in the current healthcare situation in European Union Member States

Patient Summaries are a key component for eHealth roadmaps in several countries.

The concept of a Patient Summary is not yet universal and fixed , and thus the features of the summaries largely depend on the eHealth programme in which they are embedded. The overall scenarios for deployment of Patient Summaries depend on strategic decisions in each national and regional jurisdiction , which influence the format and the usage of clinical documents.

Besides Patient Summaries, most eHealth programmes also involve various kinds of clinical documents in electronic formats, such as prescriptions and diagnostic reports .

A precondition for the success of patient summaries is the deployment of suitable infrastructures to identify citizens and professionals, to make available repositories and registries for the management of clinical documents across healthcare facilities, and to apply confidentiality measures.

• Analysis of the situation of electronic patient summaries in European Union Member States and beyond (pdf 308 Kb)

Medical Records Institute’s Seventh Annual Survey of Electronic Health Record Trends and Usage for 2005

The results of the MRI Survey of EHR Trends and Usage are displayed on this web site for you to review and refer to at no cost. A total of 438 individuals responded to the survey. However, to increase relevancy and reduce bias, responses from vendors, consultants, and payers are not included in the results. Therefore, the results that follow include only provider responses with a total database size of 280. The data includes responses from April 7th through May 18th, 2005. The EHR Survey includes the results from all sixteen questions in the survey, including the first four demographic questions.
(pdf file 780 Kb)