There have been a few mentions of the Blue Button recently.
I spotted this a few days ago.
Blue Button, PHRs gaining traction
Posted on Mar 18, 2015
By Mike Miliard, Editor
The healthcare industry is becoming more enlightened about the benefits of the Blue Button Initiative, and adoption of personal health records continues to grow, according to a new report from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange
WEDI conducted its first survey on Blue Button's use for exporting patient healthcare records in 2013; as a follow-up, it conducted another poll of stakeholders – including providers, payers, vendors and clearinghouses – in late 2014.
In a letter this week to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, WEDI offered the following takeaways from the report.
- Electronic health record and medical device data is flowing into PHRs. "While provider respondents remained relatively consistent in their use of integrated EHRs, a significant increase occurred for government respondents from 60 percent in 2013 to 100 percent in 2014. Both of these groups saw medical device data increase, with government respondents going from zero in 2013 to 25 percent in 2014. The shift for provider respondents is likely reflective of greater participation in Meaningful Use incentive programs. "
- Use of Blue Button still has room to grow. "The overall shift of awareness appears to have decreased, but upon further review of responses by respondent type, we found greater participation by behavioral and allied health providers in 2014. We believe the provider respondent increase of no awareness from 32 percent in 2013 to 49 percent in 2014 is impacted by the increase of more provider respondent types in 2014 that are ineligible for meaningful use incentives."
- Offering PHRs to all patients, not just certain populations, is key. "Respondents are at varying stages in terms of PHR implementation, some have implemented, others are implementing this year and others are still in the planning stages. What remains constant is the high percentage (80 percent in 2014) of respondents that are offering the PHR to all patients/members as opposed to only making it available to select subsets of their patients/members."
More is found here:
I also noted this report:
Blue Button Awareness, Personal Health Record Usage Grows
MAR 17, 2015 7:56am ET
Awareness of the Blue Button Initiative—a public-private effort to provide patients with easy, secure online access to their health information—is slowly building, as is usage and adoption of personal health records among key industry stakeholders.
That is the finding of a new survey conducted by the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange, which included 274 respondents. Providers, health plans, vendors and clearinghouses were re-surveyed in late 2014 to determine Blue Button adoption compared to a similar 2013 WEDI survey.
In a March 13 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, WEDI provided HHS with the results of its survey conducted from Oct. 31, 2014 to Dec. 8, 2014. Key findings include:
*Relying on integrated electronic health record and medical device data to populate personal health records (PHRs) increased. While provider respondents remained relatively consistent in their use of integrated EHRs, a significant increase occurred for government respondents from 60 percent in 2013 to 100 percent in 2014.
*Ensuring awareness of Blue Button as an industry-wide tool remains an opportunity.
More here:
The idea with the Blue Button is that the patient can download a STANDARDISED summary clinical record from their care provider and can then have it to upload to their PHR, review and correct its contents or give it to other care providers for information etc.
It seems to me that if for some reason we continue on with the PCEHR (which I do not recommend) the same functionality should exist with the PCEHR.
Its time there was something individuals could take away and share from the PCEHR if they desire!
David.
Yes much better idea. If it is going to be for consumers (more so than doctors), then let consumers decide who can see their records before they are uploaded.
ReplyDeleteThe current PCEHR system is in danger of displaying all of your records to everyone, until you get in and adjust the access…if you know that is what you need to do… and if you have access to a computer.
It is only a matter of time before someone sues the government for what is a very poor access control model.