In this paper the reader should get an overview about the possibilities patients have to get involved in their medical state in our digitalized society. Nowadays patient charts are mostly digitalizes at some point.[1] That saves time to diagnose and treat patients correctly to their medical history.[2] But constructing portals for patients is a new field to explore. Portals and webpages individualized for certain patients start to be available on the market and is in use by hospitals.[3] Having access to their own medical condition no matter where they are, patients get the opportunity to empower their own situation in the health care system. The medical data is uploaded on these portals and can be used, stored and renewed all the time by each patient- from medication they need to previous taken X-rays. That promotes new possibilities, for patients and doctors.[4] There is no need any longer to acquire human resources to provide a certain information about a patient. Everything can be stored in one device. But is that the truth? There are critiques and high risks in digitalizing every patient’s information, thinking about security lacks in the digital data or incorrectly written medical conditions by the patient or the portal itself.[5] During that examination I analyze two different kinds of portals that advertise with helping patients to keep track with their own medical history and stay in contact with their hospitals or doctors. That for, the paper opens with a brief overview about digital health reporting and continues with presenting the progress from plain portals where appointments are made or access to certain information is available to portals containing every past and present medical condition of a patient. Then the cases will be explained.
[1] Sakar et al. (2010), p. 184.
[2] Ball MJ; Costin MY; Lehmann C. (2008), p. 2.
[3] e.g.: MyMedical source: http://mymedicalapp.com/ or Emory Healthcare Patient Portal, source: http://emoryhealthcare.org/patient-portal/index.html
[4] Emont, Seth (2011).
[5] Greenhalgh, Trisha et al. (2009).
Ball MJ; Costin MY; Lehmann C: The personal health record: consumers banking on their health, Studies in Health Technology and Informatrics 2008, 134:35-4.
Emont, Seth: Measuring the Impact of Patient Portals: What the Literature Tells Us, In: California Healthcare Foundation, Online: http://www.chcf.org/~/media/MEDIA%20LIBRARY%20Files/PDF/M/PDF%20MeasuringImpactPatientPortals.pdf, May 2011., available: 27.09.2014, 13:34.
Greenhalgh, Trisha; Potts, Henry W. W.; Wong, Geoff; Bark, Pippa; Swinglehurst, Deborah: Tension and Paradox in electronic patient record, In: The Milbank Quartely, Vol. 87, Nr. 4, p. 729-788, 2009.
Sakar; Karter; Liu; Adler; Nguyen; Lopez; Schillinger: Health Literacy and the Use of an Internet Based Patient Portal in an integrated health system- results from a diabetis study of northern Carolina, In: Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, Vol. 18, p. 183-196, 2010.
In my opinion that controversial topic will have a promising future in practice. For me it’s very interesting to get to know more about it and I am looking forward to reading your paper soon. However, I’m missing your own creative contribution. I think after analyzing the portals, you will have a huge knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of those portals and some problematic issues. You could use that knowledge for some implementations, improvements or maybe the development of an own portal, which address the found problems.
Nice and very relevant subject! All involved parties in the healthcare sector need to find ways to profit from digitisation (for example the platforms you write about) in a responsible way. What I miss in your text is something about the (health) insurance companies; a section describing their interests and the risks for the patients it could have if they can get (full) insight in the medical record as well; if a patient can view it all the times, it is technically very easy to also give access to insurance companies. Another interesting actor to consider could be employers (although there are some similarities with insurance companies I guess); what if they want access to that data?
Another thing you could also include is the effects that future wearables might give; think about all the data smart watches can gather and how it (theoretically) could enrich patient records (I don’t say it is desirable, just that it is technically possible in the near future). In such a scenario the wearables could provide extra information that a patient can add to his own record through a health portal.
In your synopsis you don’t talk about the perception of the users of this platform, but mainly about the possibilities and characteristics. In the book from Thompson you might be able to find some interesting things about the perception of the patients and if they are willing/wanting to adopt such platforms at all.
Thompson, C. D. (2013). Benefits and risks of Electronic Medical Record (EMR): An interpretive analysis of healthcare consumers’ perceptions of an evolving health information systems technology. Robert Morris University.
Good that you’re going to describe to forms of a portals; make sure that when you use concepts in your paper that it is always clear about which kind of portal you are talking.
Good luck with the writing of your concept and final paper!
Arthur Verkerke
I think this is a very interesting topic to write about, because as Nane already mentioned, it will have a promising future!
What I also would find interesting is how the data is presented to the patients. In order to have the possibility to empower their own situation in the health care system , the data must be presented in a way that the patient can understand (looking at all the different medical terms doctors tend to use and hardly any “normal” people understand).
So maybe this is another viewpoint for your paper!
What I’m curious about is in what capacity does the patient have access to their health record in this portal? Are they only allowed to view their records or can they actively edit their information? Or is it a combination of both?
It has been proven that having patients that are knowledgeable about medicine and health is not only benefical for the work of doctors and other medical professionals but also in the succesful treatment of the patient. So these portals have the potential at least to bridge the gap between the patient and doctor but also giving relevant information to the patient.
I think there are plenty of hurdles to overcome as well since we don’t always know what kind of effect these portals can have on their patients. For example will access to their health records turn people into hypochondriacs? Then there is the issue of patient disinterest. These portals might not be that useful if the patients don’t care enough to use them.
Then there is also the ever present potential of exploitation that can come from the collection of patient records. Who and what has access to this information is something that should also be considered in the use of these portals.
Good points. Avoid too broad overviews and focus on analysing the two portals and what implications your findings may have for portals and patients.