The Adoption and Use of Tethered Electronic Personal Health Records for Health Management

Abstract

Information Technology becomes a crucial part of the health-care system and it is getting more attention worldwide. Health IT includes well-known systems that have transformed the health sector such as Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), and Electronic Personal Health Records (ePHR). ePHR aims at enabling patients to take more active role in their care by giving them the ability to access their health records in a secure and safe environment. ePHR allows greater patient-provider engagement. The provider’s adoption rate of the ePHR as a tool to connect with patients and to enable them to have access to their records is increasing at an accelerated rate. However, the patient’s ePHR adoption rate remains low. In the USA, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) reports an increase in the number of office-based physicians’ and hospitals’ adoption of the EHR. The number of office-based physicians adopting EHR increased from 17% in 2008 to 58% as of 2015. Similarly, it shows that the nonfederal acute care hospitals with certified EHR rate increased from 9% in 2008 to 84% as of 2015 [1]. Despite the efforts to encourage the health-care providers’ adoption of certified EHR and ePHR, the adoption rate by patients remains below expectations [2]. This rate is expected to increases due to the wide attention and efforts led by governments and health-care providers to engage patients in their care. The forecasts of future ePHR adoption are expecting 75% of adults to adopt and use ePHR by 2020 [3]. More attention is needed to improve the patient’s adoption of ePHR.