Providing Patients with Access to their Personal Medical Records On-The-Go

Nrip Nihalani

introduction

• Paper-based records are the most common method of recording patient information

• In an Integrated Healthcare Delivery system, Electronic Record Systems are required so that Patient Medical Data can be “used effectively”– Accessibility and Immediate retrieval– Easy sharing– Intelligence– Automating Alerts and Reminders

eRecords for Patients – A Personal Health Record, or PHR, is a system where

health data and information related to the care of a patient is maintained by the patient

– A Patient Portal provides patients with controlled access to a Hospital EHR

– Some Patient Portals also have the PHR feature… and vice versa some PHR’s also link to provider EMR’s

How have they fared?

• Electronic Patient Records have been a hot topic for the past decade

• The ideology behind them is sound• Some nations have implemented policies to

ensure Digitization of Records• WE ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT

IMPLEMENTING THEM ? • Long way off from being proved useful

What’s the Problem? (OPPORTUNITY)

• Solutions not matching the ideology• Employer driven PHR != Provider driven PHR• PHR considered separate from Patient Records• Poor Usability of Existing Systems• People are not using them enough• No Universally Accepted Standards for PHR’s

Some Survey Results

• 58 % of Adults without a PHR would be interested in using one, “IF THE PHR WAS OFFERED BY THEIR HOSPITAL OR MEDICAL PRACTICE”

• 57 % of Adults want to access an Online PHR connected to their Doctors Office

• Patients Feel that a Provider knows best about what features in a PHR help in care.

Patient Surveys: PHR’s Need to Provide • Test Results• Prescriptions• Wellness + Illness Data linked with EHRs• Proxy Access to Other Medical Records– Family Data

• Online Bill Payment• Messaging Features• Summarized Reports• Personalized Medical Info and Patient Education• Support for eVisits

How can PHR’s Work?

• Hospitals Offer PHRs using Integrated IT Paradigms using a wide variety of popular technologies

• Drive Patient Engagement– Collaborate with Other Stakeholders– Use Information Therapy

• Share Decision Making

Use everything at your disposal

• When Technology has advanced Why avoid using it

• Different Technologies have different purposes• Web Opens Doors for Distributing Content• Mobile takes content to the horse’s mouth• “Record Data is also Content”• And then there is more useful content to

provide with Record Data

Integrate T for Integrated H

Integrated Technology Paradigm for an Integrated Healthcare System

Integrate T for Integrated H • Healthcare Stakeholders– Patients– Hospitals/Providers– Physicians– Insurers and Pharma cos

• Integrated Technology Offerings– Provide EHR Data in PHR’s– Ensure Mobile Interfaces and Alerting– Personal Monitoring Data in PHR’s– Tablet Friendly Simple User Interfaces– Preventive Questionnaires' in PHR’s

How does one Drive Engagement?

• Information Therapy• Provide Simple Interactive Mobile Tools• Collaboration with other Providers• Educational Workshops and Webinars• Offer HealthCards• Use the Green Initiative • Preventive Care

Cue from Consumers In Today’s Times

What are Patients Doing?

• A lot of people are going online, using Google, they are trying to self-diagnose and coming to their physician and asking about various things.

• They are tweeting and facebooking … Health social networking is essentially patient run and driven.

• They are creating Google groups and discussing on Forums about their symptoms

Use this to push engagement• Online healthcare interaction can mature• Doctors must provide quality medical information on

their websites linked from PHR’s• And also meaningfully respond to queries inside PHR

messaging Systems linking patients to Information and Patient Education AV’s

• Patients will be only too happy to logon to their PHR’s instead of Dr Google if they had a chance

• Patients Going online is then a 2 way street• They will go online to find meaningful engagement

instead of only meaningful information

Information Therapy Pushes Engagement

Engage using Mobile Solutions

• Effective Information Therapy• Simple Diagnostic Tools• Health Trackers

Engage Beyond Mobile

Use Multiple Communication technologiesMobile + Social Networks

www.smartpatientalerts.com

Audio Visual Patient Education

Educating The Patient

• Physicians need to talk up the PHR during the visit as a great way to interact with the Practice/Hospitals

• Hospitals need to educate patients on the time saving benefits such as – Ability to receive timely healthcare information– Schedule their own visits

• FAQ’s and Videos of Using the PHR must be made easily available

Collaborate to Engage better

• Multiple Hospitals Educate Patients• Physicians form Focus Groups with patients• Hospitals allow PHR’s from collaborating

hospitals to access EHR Data for Patient

Hospitals StaffPhysicians

Why Collaborate

• Every Hospital wants to see better engagement

• Together one can educate Patients better• Moreover, If they collaborate on PHR’s, by

sharing EMR data, patients get more value.• Also this drives down the cost of Technology• And Step towards a common standard• Hence Offers More meaningful engagement

Preventive Health Data Helps Engage

• Improves Activation & willingness of the patient to take on the role of managing their health

• Real Time Reports after filling in short simple questionnaires keep patients engaged

• Game based Preventive Tools drive engagement further

Shared Decision Making

• Addresses the ethical need to fully inform patients about the risks and benefits of treatments

• Patients are willing to participate

Best Practices from Early Adopters

• Be Open to It• Communicate Possibilities Early• Provide Diagnostic Tools • Patient Driven Blogs• Create Patient Groups• Patient Education AV’s• Informed Consent

Summarizing : Make PHR’s Work

• Hospitals Offer PHRs using Integrated IT Paradigms using a wide variety of popular technologies

• Drive Patient Engagement– Collaborate with Other Stakeholders– Use Information Therapy

• Share Decision Making

Questions & Discussions

email me at n.nihalani@plus91.in

or send a tweet to @nrip