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).
Literature:
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.