Using the EHR and/or PHR to further Empower Patients

"Patient Experiences With Full Electronic Access to Health Records and Clinical Notes Through the My HealtheVet Personal Health Record Pilot: Qualitative Study", co-authored with colleagues Erin Schwartz, Anais Tuepker, Nancy Press, Kim Nazi, Carolyn Turvey and Paul Nichol, was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Anyone can get it, since JMIR is open access.

What we did: Talk to VA patients who used the My HealtheVet Pilot, the VA’s first personal health record. It let users see most of their EHR – notes, summaries, procedure notes, imaging reports, lab test results.

We wanted to hear from people who looked at their records, so we invited a random sample to attend focus groups. We had 5 groups...

What we found: Four themes. First, patients said it was a great tool to supplement usual communication. Second, it improved self-care. Like helping to better understand their conditions or remember what was recommended. Third – and this is most important - they said they became more engaged in their care. We heard great stories of participatory care...