An Investigation of Health Professionals' Attitudes Towards Patient-Held Electronic Records

摘要

Patient-held electronic record devices enable people to carry around information about their health. This needs to be available to health professionals and should provide enough information to enable them to deliver appropriate care. Although it has been suggested that patients taking responsibility for their records could improve patient safety, little is known about health professionals` attitudes towards this. In taking a user centred approach to the development of such a device, a survey was conducted with a wide range of health professionals including doctors, nurses, ambulance staff, pharmacists and others from professions allied to medicine. Of particular interest were issues relating to the overall level of support for such devices, potential barriers to acceptance, the type of information to be included on the devices and preferred (design) characteristics. The survey of 260 health professionals showed that 94% of the participants thought that patient-held electronic records could be helpful as a way of sharing information with patients and other professionals. However, the majority were worried about records getting lost (80%), unauthorised people gaining access to the information (75%) and that the information might not be up to date when it was needed (74%). The most popular types of information that participants suggested should be kept on devices were allergies, current medication, name, long term conditions, age, history of major health problems and next of kin. A smart card design format was preferred by 60% of the participants and 60% thought it should be provided free of charge.