What A Surprise US CIOs Realise That Many Can’t Use Their Digital Health Tools And That There Are All Sorts Of Problems.

This appeared a few days ago:

Are all patients up to the task of managing their own health data? Some CIOs say no

by Heather Landi

Mar 7, 2019 11:09am

With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introducing policies to drive interoperability and CMS Administrator Seema Verma recently making it clear that “patient data belongs to patients,” there is increasing discussion about giving patients easier access to their health data.

But, will all patients truly be up to the task of managing their own health data?

Some CIOs say definitely not, especially those patients who are chronically ill or those without internet access, for example, according to a recent CIO focus group.

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and LexisNexis Risk Solutions led the focus group, which included vice presidents and CIOs from hospitals, nursing homes and health plans, to gauge healthcare leaders’ top priorities in 2019.

The focus group underscored that CIOs and other healthcare executives have pragmatic questions as it relates to patient-owned medical records.

Discussion touched on making medical records available in a universal electronic format where patients, not providers, decide who accesses their data.

“We do think this is the future. We’re watching what’s happening,” one healthcare CIO said, according to a report summarizing the CIO focus group discussion.

It was part of a broader discussion of practical considerations among the CIOs in the focus group: How can providers be confident they get access to a complete and accurate record to ensure they make accurate medical decisions? Can organizations trust the information, and might it put providers at risk for medical errors?

Also, what if a patient decides not to share certain records? And, how will consumers who do not widely use technology, are chronically ill or lack access to the internet be able to manage their records?

The focus group discussion also underscored that top priorities for hospital CIOs in 2019 seem to differ largely based on the current phase of electronic health record deployment, with more mature organizations moving past infrastructure needs and focusing on technology to engage patients.

Other issues CIO are canvassed in the rest of the article:

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/are-all-patients-up-to-task-managing-their-own-health-data-some-cios-say-no

Reading this is was if the US CIOs were having a re-run of all the issues we have been wondering about with the #myHealthRecord and which are by no means resolved.

Incomplete data and potential liability made it front and centre as did the whole issue of digital literacy / ability to manage a record even if it was complete and accurate.

We know from many surveys GPs and other health professionals in Australia are uncertain how to proceed and we now see the issue is a global concern.

Is it not the case that as we make health information largely available via digital channels we may dis empower a significant segment of the population. The poll on the topic which has only been up for a few hours seems to suggest the same is true in OZ!

What do people think?

David.