As the digital age ushers in more and more ways for the healthcare world to organize and access data, two recent studies show that doctors appear to be ahead of patients when it comes to making personal medical information electronically available.
In one study, 49 percent of 105 participating patients elected to withhold information contained in their medical records from some or all of their healthcare providers.
In the study’s six-month trial, by the Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, and Eskenazi’s Health (formerly Wishard Health Services), patients were asked to indicate a preference for which clinicians could access sensitive information in their electronic medical records (EHRs) — such as information on sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, or mental health — and to designate what clinicians could see.
Commenting on the high percentage of patients wishing to withhold information, Regenstrief CEO William Tierney, MD, said in a statement that patients may not understand why access to their health information is needed by medical team members other than their physician or nurse.
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“While understandably concerned about privacy, they may not realize how important it is for their medical team to have access to the complete medical record,” Tierney said. “For example, an emergency room doctor or primary care doctor needs to know everything about the patient, even sensitive issues such as recreational drug use or pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections.”
The researchers found health care providers were highly concerned about adverse effects on both the quality of care and on the provider-patient relationship if patients withheld information in their EHR from their doctors and nurses.
Although federal guidelines focusing on privacy issues, such as the Fair Information Practice Principles, give patients control of access to information in their medical records, Tierney explained that hiding information from doctors could be dangerous.
“So there is a tension between patients who should have control over their health information and doctors who may not serve them well, and may actually harm them, if important information is hidden,” he added.
In contrast, doctors and other providers showed a strong preference for gaining access to patients’ records, according to another recent study by by Booz Allen Hamilton and Ipsos Public Affairs, which involved 1,000 adult consumers.
The study found that more than six out of ten providers believe Internet and mobile applications for health and disease management offer important data that should be incorporated into a patient’s EHR.
Three types of apps that providers are most likely to offer their patients are those that enable appointment scheduling, access to medical records and secure messaging — each cited by at least four in ten providers.
Security was critical, the study said, because, not unexpectedly, 82 percent of consumers rank privacy and security of personal medical information as very or extremely important.
Date: December 29, 2014