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March 4, 2009A new study released by Harvard Medical School suggests that patient involvement in the use of electronic health records can help improve the effectiveness of the technology. This suggests, the researchers point out, that all of the recent attention on EMRs due to the recent HITECH funding should not just focus on how doctors will use EHRs, the focus also should be on how EHRs can be used to get patients more involved in their care. As ihealthbeat.org reports:
“The study, conducted by Harvard Medical School and two other institutions, found that reminding patients to take a critical test is more effective than reminding their physicians about the same test. Researchers based their study on 300,000 EHRs used by the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a group practice in Massachusetts that has had an EHR system for 12 years.
“The researchers identified 21,860 patients who were overdue for colorectal cancer screening and 110 physicians who treated those patients. The researchers then divided the patients and physicians into sample and control groups.
“The patients in the sample group received personalized letters informing them they were overdue for colorectal cancer screening and offering them information about testing. In addition, physicians received pop-up reminders that patients were overdue for colorectal cancer screening when they accessed EHRs during office visits.
“After 15 months, the study found that about 44% of patients who received a reminder went for a screening, compared with 38% of patients who did not receive a reminder. However, the electronic reminders for physicians did not lead to a significant increase in screening rates, BusinessWeek reports. “
Read the full article: “Patient Involvement Key to Effectiveness of EHRs, Study Says“. Still, a lot of the industry focus is still on bridging the gap of physician adoption, especially as patient volume is down in many practices and a recent report showed 2008 as an abysmal year for hospital profitability.
Despite these trends, most vocal healthcare leaders remain supportive and optimistic of the new funding package. The executives of the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC), Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and Certification Commission on Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) - John Tooker, MD, John D. Halamka, MD, and Mark Leavitt, MD - state that the widespread use of healthcare information technology is a critical first step to curing much of what ails the healthcare system, the heads of three national healthcare organizations say in a “Shared Roadmap and Vision for Health IT,” released last month. (See article here)
Other reports cite the need for IT standards, uniform security standards and other regulations as keys for the success of the HealthIT funding initiative. Doubtless many of these issues will be addressed by the newly appointed healthcare reform team. More news to come!
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An informative read. Thanks