The Diffusion and Use of The Tethered Personal Health Record In Primary Care
|
If you are the presenter of this abstract (or if you cite this abstract in a talk or on a poster), please show the QR code in your slide or poster (QR code contains this URL). |
Abstract
Background
Current health care policy trends are requiring providers to allow patients to have greater access and control to their medical information. The HITECH Act of 2009 has spurred the use of the PHR, as it provides an electronic mechanism for the sharing of medical information. The Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) currently uses an EMR system that offers a PHR patient portal to patients in the ambulatory clinics, called OSUMyChart. All primary care physicians are required to offer this PHR to patients per departmental policy. Between June, 2010 and May, 2011, an average of 1190 new accounts were created each month by providers and an average of 795 accounts were activated by patients (66.8%). However, it is unclear how physicians integrate the use of the PHR into their patient care workflows.
Objective
This study seeks to understand how physicians use the tethered PHR for clinical care, including comparing their actual use of the system and their perceived use of the system.
Methods
This study relies on institutional data collected over 12 months by the IT department at the Ohio State University Medical Center, which describes the average time spent on OSUMyChart on a weekly basis, the number of emails sent to patients through OSUMyChart, the number of prescriptions requests filled via OSUMyChart, and the average number of new patient account activations per week. Electronic surveys were sent out to all primary care physicians affiliated with the Ohio State University Medical Center who are subject to the departmental policy regarding OSUMyChart use. The surveys asked physicians to estimate the average amount of time spent per week on OSUMyChart activities, the average number of emails received by patients through OSUMyChart, the average number of new activations of patient accounts, and the average number of prescription requests. Additionally, physicians were asked to rate various aspects of the OSUMyChart system, including perceived usefulness, ease of use, technical support, and added quality to clinical care. Demographic and practice characteristics for each physician was also collected for use in the analysis.
Results
A total of 89 physicians were included in the survey and a response rate of 60.6% (n=54). Physicians estimated spending an average of 12.5 hours per week on OSUMyChart, however institutional records show only an average of 8.2 hours per week is spent on the system (p=0.034). Additional analysis shows that older physicians, based upon the number of years since graduation from medical school, are less likely to perceive the system as useful and estimate a higher average time spent on the system, while institutional records show no difference in the average weekly time between age groupings.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that physician characteristics may account for a large portion of the variation in the perceived use and usefulness of the PHR system. Physicians who are younger are more likely to activate new accounts and use more functionalities of the system. This research is important to understanding how technology diffusion in the medical system can be affected by user characteristics.
Current health care policy trends are requiring providers to allow patients to have greater access and control to their medical information. The HITECH Act of 2009 has spurred the use of the PHR, as it provides an electronic mechanism for the sharing of medical information. The Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) currently uses an EMR system that offers a PHR patient portal to patients in the ambulatory clinics, called OSUMyChart. All primary care physicians are required to offer this PHR to patients per departmental policy. Between June, 2010 and May, 2011, an average of 1190 new accounts were created each month by providers and an average of 795 accounts were activated by patients (66.8%). However, it is unclear how physicians integrate the use of the PHR into their patient care workflows.
Objective
This study seeks to understand how physicians use the tethered PHR for clinical care, including comparing their actual use of the system and their perceived use of the system.
Methods
This study relies on institutional data collected over 12 months by the IT department at the Ohio State University Medical Center, which describes the average time spent on OSUMyChart on a weekly basis, the number of emails sent to patients through OSUMyChart, the number of prescriptions requests filled via OSUMyChart, and the average number of new patient account activations per week. Electronic surveys were sent out to all primary care physicians affiliated with the Ohio State University Medical Center who are subject to the departmental policy regarding OSUMyChart use. The surveys asked physicians to estimate the average amount of time spent per week on OSUMyChart activities, the average number of emails received by patients through OSUMyChart, the average number of new activations of patient accounts, and the average number of prescription requests. Additionally, physicians were asked to rate various aspects of the OSUMyChart system, including perceived usefulness, ease of use, technical support, and added quality to clinical care. Demographic and practice characteristics for each physician was also collected for use in the analysis.
Results
A total of 89 physicians were included in the survey and a response rate of 60.6% (n=54). Physicians estimated spending an average of 12.5 hours per week on OSUMyChart, however institutional records show only an average of 8.2 hours per week is spent on the system (p=0.034). Additional analysis shows that older physicians, based upon the number of years since graduation from medical school, are less likely to perceive the system as useful and estimate a higher average time spent on the system, while institutional records show no difference in the average weekly time between age groupings.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that physician characteristics may account for a large portion of the variation in the perceived use and usefulness of the PHR system. Physicians who are younger are more likely to activate new accounts and use more functionalities of the system. This research is important to understanding how technology diffusion in the medical system can be affected by user characteristics.
Medicine 2.0® is happy to support and promote other conferences and workshops in this area. Contact us to produce, disseminate and promote your conference or workshop under this label and in this event series. In addition, we are always looking for hosts of future World Congresses. Medicine 2.0® is a registered trademark of JMIR Publications Inc., the leading academic ehealth publisher.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.