142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Online Program

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

306604
Personal Health Records: A pilot to demonstrate bi-directional data exchange between patients and providers

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 12:30 PM - 12:50 PM

Larry Garrett, PhD, MPH , HealthInsight, Salt Lake City, UT
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: Several initiatives such as the Meaningful Use incentives and the National eHealth Collaborative model are based upon the use of information technology to meet the needs of patients. Personal health records (PHRs) are widely recognized as instruments that may promote patient-centered care. However, little is known about the utility of PHRs for bi-directional exchange between patients and their providers. As part of a project funded by the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT, we initiated a pilot study to: (a) identify “use cases” for data exchange to understand the value of exchanging patient-generated data with the provider and (b) develop User Guides to implement bi-directional exchange and share data between PHRs.

Methods: The pilot study period was between August, 2013 and January, 2014. We partnered with one independent clinic that provided a patient portal to their patients. Working with a physician and a care coordinator director at the clinic, we identified specific use cases of patient-generated data that may facilitate decision-making (e.g., data from health trackers such as glucometers) and developed a User Guide to support patient-mediated exchange using tethered and untethered PHR and the Direct exchange protocol.

Results: The development and subsequent use of the User Guide proved to be challenging but successful. Key challenges include: (a) Patients have to possess certain technical skills to share data with their provider, (b) Most glucometers are not designed to automatically populate PHRs, and(c) PHRs are updated often and allow patients to edit data, which may make providers wary of patient-generated data.   

Discussion: At this time there are no standards for the import/export of data in PHRs, which creates challenges to implementation in the outpatient setting with real patients Our pilot highlights the limitations of current mechanisms for data sharing and reveals the requirements needed to support bi-directional exchange.

Learning Areas:

Communication and informatics

Learning Objectives:
Describe lessons learned from a pilot to demonstrate data-exchange between different Personal Health Record systems Discuss barriers and opportunities to leverage Personal Health Records for patient-centered care

Keyword(s): Information Technology, Self-Management

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have degrees in Behavioral Science and Health and Nursing as well as a Master in Public Health and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Health Science. I completed a Health Informatics Fellowship with the National Foundation for the CDC and I am a former Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer. Prior to working at HealthInsight, I was a partner in a Public Health software and consulting company that developed software applications for Public Health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3254.0: Consumer Empowerment through the Use of Health IT