Patients and their electronic health records: Can healthcare education shape patient preferences?

What is it about?

Increasingly more patients worldwide can access their electronic health record. Sweden was among the first countries that gave patients access to their records online. There, electronic health records contain a variety of medical information, such as diagnoses, tests results, vaccinations, and prescriptions among others. Although the use of the electronic record has become as routine as online banking to the Swedish patient, some tension towards the practice still exists. Research often finds that patients and doctors express conflicting views about the availability of electronic health records to patients. While patients consider the practice favourably, describing feeling more in control of their healthcare as a result, many doctors remain sceptical. Some healthcare professionals are concerned about an increase in workload or even an increase in litigation cases. While the clash of perspectives is evident, is it really so striking? In this paper, researchers from Sweden look at how opinions about the electronic health record change among patients with healthcare background. In a survey, the asked patients who read their online record how useful do they consider various record information and functions to be. The patients were then divided into those with healthcare education and those without. The results were in contrast with the literature. When asked to think about the electronic health records as patients, those with a healthcare background were not too dissimilar to patients without.

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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The design of electronic health record is always evolving, adapting to the needs and wants of its users. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic the Swedish patient portal not only allowed patients to book their COVID-19 jabs and schedule COVID-19 testing, but also view the results from the test as quickly as they came in. Understanding what drives patients' preferences for the online health record can help developers make it better.