The Blue Button Project: Engaging Patients in Healthcare by a Click of a Button

摘要

The Blue Button project has become a way for many Americans to download their health records by just a click in any way that suits them, such as in print, on a thumb drive, or on their mobile devices and smartphones. Several organizations have developed and applied Blue Buttons on their websites to allow beneficiaries to securely access and view personal medical information and claims. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the significance of the Blue Button project in the field of health information management. Findings suggest that the project could empower and engage consumers and patients in a healthcare system by allowing access to medical records, thereby promoting better management and overall improvement of their healthcare. To date, the project has gained wide support from insurers, technology companies, and health providers despite the challenges of standardization and interoperability. Keywords: Blue Button Project, electronic health records (EHRs), medical records, HITECH Act, meaningful use, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Department of Defense (DoD), Blue Button+ (BB+), Blue Button ConnectorIntroductionBlue Button is an online portal for patients to download their own health information in a variety of formats, such as text and PDF.~(~(1)) The objective of this project is to empower and engage consumers and patients by allowing easy access to electronic health information and medical records to better manage and improve healthcare.~(~(2)) The White House defines Blue Button as a symbol that allows patients “to download their health information to their own home computer or portable memory device” and notes that the “VA is working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Defense to make Blue Button technology available to all government health plan beneficiaries.”~(~(3)) Lygeia Ricciardi, the director of the Office of Consumer eHealth for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) defined Blue Button on the simplest level as “a literal ‘button’ appearing on many websites that lets consumers get their health information online” and noted that “the VA's definition of Blue Button specified a particular technical format which enabled patients to read, print, or store their health records in a straightforward but bare bones way.”~(~(4)) Other websites give similar definitions, such as “a tool to make patient medical records easily available for patients to download and share with members of their health care team.”~(~(5)) The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also allows veterans to download their self-entered information, for example insurance information or information from their medical record such as medications, allergies, or laboratory results.~(~(6)) Similarly, users of TriCare in the Department of Defense (DoD) can use Blue Button to download medical health records including medications, allergies, and test results.~(~(7)) Blue Button allows patients access to retrieve their health records, and it offers clinicians an easy way to provide their patients with necessary data.~(~(8))Overview on the Development of Blue Button ProjectThe idea of Blue Button goes back to January 2010 during a workgroup meeting for Markle Consumer Engagement workgroup in New York City. Markle group had an exciting discussion of how to engage consumers in health system to meet the meaningful use of ARRA “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” issued on 2009. Dr. Carol Diamond, the managing director stated that “having that kind of information will certainly prompt patients to talk to their health care providers about issues that otherwise might not have noticed”.~(~(10)) The discussion of the members led to an idea, the idea of giving patients the ability to access their health data, that is the idea of “Blue Button”.~(~(9))This was followed by the launch of Blue Button at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2010 based on the strong belief of the value that Blue Button would add to the veterans, the department has focused initially on the available data as a starting point.~(~(9),~(10),~(11)) In August, the first version of Blue Button was released to enable consumers to access their data records in My HealthVet. This has also inspired others to implement the idea of Blue Button such as HIT innovators and vendors.~(~(11)) The expansion of Blue Button was more noticed in 2011, when (ONC) launched the Consumer e-Health and Empowerment Pledge Community Program which includes more than 500 organizations committed to expand the Blue Button project and to further engage patients in health information technology.~(~(11))Blue Button ExpansionThe Blue Button Connector was launched by the Department of Health and Human Services at a conference in Orlando, Florida, in 2014. It is a website that helps patients and consumers reach their own health information electronically and helps de