HHS Enters Into Agreements to Support Digital Health Recovery for the Gulf Coast: Partnerships will Accelerate Electronic Health Records in Gulf States

2005 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikram Dhillon

No abstract available. Editor’s note: A proposal to implement distributed ledger technology for electronic health records is outlined here. The rationale for integration of distributed ledgers in the healthcare domain is introduced, followed by a discussion of the features enabled by the use of a blockchain. An open source implementation of a distributed ledger is then presented. The article concludes with an examination of opportunities and challenges ahead in deploying blockchains for digital health.


Author(s):  
Vinícius Lima ◽  
Filipe Bernardi ◽  
Rui Rijo ◽  
Jó Ueyama ◽  
Domingos Alves

Background: Intensified research and innovation and rapid uptake of new tools, interventions, and strategies are crucial to fight Tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease. The sharing of health data remains a significant challenge. Data consumers must be able to verify the consistency and integrity of data. Solutions based on distributed ledger technologies may be adequate, where each member in a network holds a unique credential and stores an identical copy of the ledger and contributes to the collective process of validating and certifying digital transactions. Objectives: This work proposes a mechanism and presents a use case in Digital Health to allow the verification of integrity and immutability of TB electronic health records. Methods: IOTA was selected as a supporting tool due to its data immutability, traceability and tamper-proof characteristics. Results: A mechanism to verify the integrity of data through hash functions and the IOTA network is proposed. Then, a set of TB related information systems was integrated with the network. Conclusion: IOTA technology offers performance and flexibility to enable a reliable environment for electronic health records.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Germaine Shull

UNSTRUCTURED Digital health systems and innovative care delivery within these systems have great potential to improve national health care and positively impact the health outcomes of patients. However, currently, very few countries have systems that can implement digital interventions at scale. This is partly because of the lack of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs). It is difficult to make decisions for an individual or population when the data on that person or population are dispersed over multiple incompatible systems. This viewpoint paper has highlighted some key obstacles of current EHRs and some promising successes, with the goal of promoting EHR evolution and advocating for frameworks that develop digital health systems that serve populations—a critical goal as we move further into this data-rich century with an ever-increasing number of patients who live longer and depend on health care services where resources may already be strained. This paper aimed to analyze the evolution, obstacles, and current landscape of EHRs and identify fundamental areas of hindrance for interoperability. It also aimed to highlight countries where advances have been made and extract best practices from these examples. The obstacles to EHR interoperability are not easily solved, but improving the current situation in countries where a national policy is not in place will require a focused inquiry into solutions from various sources in the public and private sector. Effort must be made on a national scale to seek solutions for optimally interoperable EHRs beyond status quo solutions. A list of considerations for best practices is suggested.


2021 ◽  
pp. 74-84
Author(s):  
Eric D. Perakslis ◽  
Martin Stanley

A key opportunity for anticipating and understanding the potential risks and benefits of digital health is readily available in the form of electronic health records (EHRs). Touted as a transformation in health care and funded by tens of billions of dollars in federal investment, the outcomes remain mixed. Although the anticipated benefits of increased visibility to healthcare spending and utilization are real, the massive ongoing expense, the time taken away from clinical encounters, and the massive burden on clinicians are all frequently reported unsolved problems. The need to address all stakeholders, to obtain objective measurement, to spend equal time spent examining risks and benefits, and to achieve long-term sustainability are just a few examples of lessons learned from the implementation of EHRs that should be applied to digital health.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Støre Valeur ◽  
Anne Kveim Lie ◽  
Kåre Moen

BACKGROUND Patient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) enable patients to access their health records through a secure connection over the internet. Although previous studies of patient experiences with this kind of service have shown that a majority of users are positive toward PAEHRs, little is known about why some patients occasionally or regularly choose not to use them. A better understanding of why patients may choose not to make use of digital health services such as PAEHRs is important for further development and implementation of services aimed at having patients participate in digital health services. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to explore patients’ rationales for not embracing online access to health records. METHODS Qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 patients in a department of internal medicine in a Norwegian hospital in 2018-2019. Interview transcripts were subjected to thematic content analysis. In this paper, we focus on the subject of nonuse of PAEHRs. RESULTS We identified 8 different rationales that study participants had for not embracing PAEHRs. When patients reflected on why they might not use PAEHRs, they variously explained that they found PAEHRs unnecessary (they did not feel they were useful), impersonal (they preferred oral dialogue with their doctor or nurse over written information), incomprehensible (the records contained medical terminology and explanations that were hard to understand), misery oriented (the records solely focused on disease), fear provoking (reading the records could cause unwanted emotional reactions), energy demanding (making sense of the records added to the work of being a patient), cumbersome (especially among patients who felt they did not have the necessary digital competence), and impoverishing (they were skeptical about the digital transformation of individual and social life). CONCLUSIONS It is often assumed that the barriers to PAEHR use are mostly practical (such as lack of hardware and access to the internet). In this study, we showed that patients may have many other valid reasons for not wanting to adopt this kind of service. The results can help guide how PAEHRs and other digital health services are promoted and presented to patients, and they may suggest that the goal of a given new digital health service should not necessarily be full uptake by all patients. Rather, one should recognize that different patients might prefer and benefit from different kinds of “analog” and digital health services.


10.2196/24090 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. e24090
Author(s):  
Hanne Støre Valeur ◽  
Anne Kveim Lie ◽  
Kåre Moen

Background Patient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) enable patients to access their health records through a secure connection over the internet. Although previous studies of patient experiences with this kind of service have shown that a majority of users are positive toward PAEHRs, little is known about why some patients occasionally or regularly choose not to use them. A better understanding of why patients may choose not to make use of digital health services such as PAEHRs is important for further development and implementation of services aimed at having patients participate in digital health services. Objective The objective of the study was to explore patients’ rationales for not embracing online access to health records. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 patients in a department of internal medicine in a Norwegian hospital in 2018-2019. Interview transcripts were subjected to thematic content analysis. In this paper, we focus on the subject of nonuse of PAEHRs. Results We identified 8 different rationales that study participants had for not embracing PAEHRs. When patients reflected on why they might not use PAEHRs, they variously explained that they found PAEHRs unnecessary (they did not feel they were useful), impersonal (they preferred oral dialogue with their doctor or nurse over written information), incomprehensible (the records contained medical terminology and explanations that were hard to understand), misery oriented (the records solely focused on disease), fear provoking (reading the records could cause unwanted emotional reactions), energy demanding (making sense of the records added to the work of being a patient), cumbersome (especially among patients who felt they did not have the necessary digital competence), and impoverishing (they were skeptical about the digital transformation of individual and social life). Conclusions It is often assumed that the barriers to PAEHR use are mostly practical (such as lack of hardware and access to the internet). In this study, we showed that patients may have many other valid reasons for not wanting to adopt this kind of service. The results can help guide how PAEHRs and other digital health services are promoted and presented to patients, and they may suggest that the goal of a given new digital health service should not necessarily be full uptake by all patients. Rather, one should recognize that different patients might prefer and benefit from different kinds of “analog” and digital health services.


10.2196/12712 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. e12712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Germaine Shull

Digital health systems and innovative care delivery within these systems have great potential to improve national health care and positively impact the health outcomes of patients. However, currently, very few countries have systems that can implement digital interventions at scale. This is partly because of the lack of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs). It is difficult to make decisions for an individual or population when the data on that person or population are dispersed over multiple incompatible systems. This viewpoint paper has highlighted some key obstacles of current EHRs and some promising successes, with the goal of promoting EHR evolution and advocating for frameworks that develop digital health systems that serve populations—a critical goal as we move further into this data-rich century with an ever-increasing number of patients who live longer and depend on health care services where resources may already be strained. This paper aimed to analyze the evolution, obstacles, and current landscape of EHRs and identify fundamental areas of hindrance for interoperability. It also aimed to highlight countries where advances have been made and extract best practices from these examples. The obstacles to EHR interoperability are not easily solved, but improving the current situation in countries where a national policy is not in place will require a focused inquiry into solutions from various sources in the public and private sector. Effort must be made on a national scale to seek solutions for optimally interoperable EHRs beyond status quo solutions. A list of considerations for best practices is suggested.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 751-767
Author(s):  
Manish Kumar ◽  
Javed Mostafa

PurposeElectronic health records (EHR) can enable collection and use of data for achieving better health both at the patient and population health levels. The World Health Organization's (WHO) draft 2019 four-year global digital health strategy aims to “improve health for everyone, everywhere by accelerating the adoption of appropriate digital health” and EHRs are key to achieving better health goals. Despite the fact that EHRs can help to achieve better health, there is lack of evidence explaining national and sub-national EHR development in the limited resource settings.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a landscape study to describe the EHR development and use in the low- and middle-income countries for achieving better health. We reviewed literature from four scientific databases and analyzed gray literature identified in consultation with 17 international experts.FindingsThe findings of this literature review are presented in three subsections. The first two subsections describe key stakeholders for development of national and sub-national EHR and health information architecture which includes status of ehealth foundations, EHR, and sub-systems in the country. The third subsection presents and discusses key challenges related to sustainability of national and sub-national EHRs. The findings in these three subsections are further explored through examples of health information flow in Uganda, and electronic medical record/EHR implementation in Sierra Leone and Malawi. These examples briefly describe stakeholders, information architecture, and sustainability challenges.Originality/valueThis paper fills an important research gap and clearly explains the urgent research need to build context-specific EHR development models to enable use of data for better health.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Janssen ◽  
Judy Kay ◽  
Stella Talic ◽  
Martin Pusci ◽  
Robert J. Birnbaum ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED A foundational component of Digital Health involves collecting and leveraging electronic health data to improve health and wellbeing. One of the central technologies for collecting these data are Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In this Viewpoint we argue that EHRs are a rich source of information on the performance of health professionals and healthcare teams that could be harnessed to support practice reflection and behaviour change. We contextualise the intersection between Digital Health and data-driven practice reflection, including providing an overview of the role of EHRs underpinning technology innovation in healthcare. Subsequently we advocate for designers of EHRs to give more consideration to the value of these systems for supporting practice reflection by health professionals.


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