The Electronic Health Record is globally accepted as a necessity:

• to better meet patient expectations,
• to expedite many tedious work processes such as prescription writing and creation of chart notes, service administration, research, planning and audit, communication between patients and providers, fiscal governance
• to create new ways in which the health of our patients can be improved
• to improve cost efficiency due to raising demands of healthcare and the aging population
• Portability - travel, second opinions, emigration, working abroad, distant working and support for developing countries and as part of aid, war, famine and assistance to refugees While professional experience with the EHR is generally positive, there are even more opportunities for improving care with the EHR once patients have access to their own records.

Evidence-based benefits include:

• Improving the relationship between clinician and patient
• Improving trust between patient and clinician
• Practical support for patients in managing their health
• Improving compliance
• Patients feel empowered to make decisions about their health?
• More efficient use of consulting time

The Record Access Collaborative is being developed as a service to the public, patients, health services and industry. The aim is to bring together those across the world who have an interest in seeing record access more widely available and maximising benefits that flow from it and to be instrumental in managing practical and technical aspects concerning patient record access in relation to local/national policies.
Read more on the goals of the RAC.

RAC Newsletter December 2007

Source:

“Welcome to the Record Access Collaborative Progress Report which covers the last 3 months or so. As always activity and developments in the field have been steady.
In the UK, Wales is developing full records access to practices. HealthSpace has begun its pilots, accompanied as always by controversy. EMIS/PAERS has gone national, switching on all EMIS practices for record access if they want to take it up.
In Europe, we feature France and Germany as they begin trials of record access. In the US, Microsoft and Google are entering the field, stimulating a lot of controversy, reflected here.
Patient experiences are featured again and remain very positive.
As an introduction, however, we feature 2 important contributions. The first is a letter from the GMC endorsing record access in principle – we see this as reassuring to clinicians. Also, a link to an interesting and balanced overview of record access from the BMJ.”
Newsletter
Brian Fisher, December 2007

7 January 2008 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA General, RA News, RAC, Record Access | EHR: EHR

RAC Newsletter July 2007

Source:

“As usual, there has been a lot going on, both in the UK and elsewhere.
In the UK, the highlights are perhaps:

• the Early Adopter sites for the Summary Care Record going live in 2 areas of the UK.
• The continuing enlargement of the 100 practice pilot enabling an increasing number of practices to enable full patient record access
• The pushing forward of the eHealthCard that is now being offered to practices in the UK
• The resignation of Richard Granger who runs the IT programme in the UK. This may offer a more open approach to IT development

In Europe, the recent ICMCC conference in Amsterdam highlighted record access and offered a number of concrete developments, in Estonia, the Czech Republic and in the Netherlands.
But first, developments outside Europe.”
Newsletter
Brian Fisher, July 2007

16 July 2007 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA General, RA News, RAC, Record Access | EHR: EHR

RAC Contribution by Denis Protti

Source:

A rare treat! We have an original article by Prof Denis Protti, Professor, Health Information Science at University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, written especially for this Record Access Collaborative edition.
[ More ]

4 June 2007 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA General, RA News, RAC, Record Access | EHR: EHR

RAC Newsletter March 2007

Source:

“The record access collaborative is being developed as a service to the public, patients, the NHS and industry. The aim is to bring together those who have an interest in seeing record access more widely available and maximising benefits that flow from it.
The NHS has made a clear statement of principle that patients should be able to access their records, subject to legal safety restrictions. There is good evidence of substantial benefits for patients.”
Newsletter
Brian Fisher, March 2007

29 March 2007 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA General, RA News, RAC, Record Access | EHR: EHR

Canadian Patient Access and Nightingale Launch Canada’s First Interactive PHR

Source: MedicExchange

“Canadian Patient Access Inc. (CPA) and Nightingale Informatix Corporation (”Nightingale” or the “Company”) announce the launch of myPatientAccess.ca, Canada’s first interactive patient portal to be fully integrated with an EMR system.
[ More ]

2 September 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: Canada | EHR: EHR, EHR Canada | Tags: emr, Patient, phr, Portal

Veterans Affairs and CMS will launch projects for personal health records

Source: Bob Brewin, NextGov

“The Veterans Affairs Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services kicked off projects this week that could lead to the creation of personal health records for almost a third of the U.S. population.
[ More ]

2 September 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Patient, phr

Download Capability Backed As Essential To Meaningful Use

Source: Nicole Lewis, InformationWeek Healthcare

“The Markle Foundation has issued a policy paper recommending that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) make the “blue button” — a way to click and download personal health information from a secure website — a priority in all health IT efforts.
[ More ]

1 September 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Meaningful Use, Patient

Markle calls for ‘blue button’ access to health info

Source: Mary Mosquera, Government Health IT

“The Veterans Affairs Department has set up a feature on its electronic patient portal that lets veterans download their personal health information into an electronic health record or other electronic media at the click of a button.
[ More ]

1 September 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Patient

Why OpenNotes and access to the medical chart is important

Source: Wendy S. Harpham, KevinMD

“Have you ever read what your physicians and nurses have written in your medical chart? If not, would you want to?
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24 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Notes, Patient

OpenNotes and whether patients should see their medical notes

Source: Dave deBronkart, KevinMD

“The opening anecdote of the e-patient white paper tells of a patient who impersonated a doctor in 1994, to get his hands on an article about an operation he was about to have. He got busted. Two years later episode 139 of Seinfeld had something similar – Kramer impersonates a doctor to try to get Elaine’s medical record.
[ More ]

22 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Notes, Patient

Open Notes Project – Right Thing or Wrong Question

Source: John W. Sharp, eHealth

“The discussion of having doctors notes on one’s care readily available electronically was stimulated by a recent New York Times article titled, Should Patients Read the Doctor’s Notes? Roni Zeiger of Google Health challenges whether this is the right question.
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19 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Notes, Patient, phr

Alstublieft, uw dossier!

Source: Jaco van Duivenboden, ICTZorgen

“Als ik naar de garage ga voor een onderhoudsbeurt, krijg ik van de dealer altijd een keurige waslijst met wat er allemaal mis was. Een factuur, met daarop een hele lading termen die ik, a-technisch als ik ben, zelden begrijp. Als ik iets niet snap, vraag ik gewoon wat er bedoeld wordt met “vervanging motorblok”.
[ More ]

19 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: Netherlands | EHR: EHR, EHR Netherlands | Tags: Access, Patient

Patients’ concern about access to medical records is paramount, says survey

Source: Molly Merrill, Healthcare IT News

“Patients worry about not being able to access their paper medical records when they need them the most, placing that above concerns about whether their records contain inaccuracies or are stolen, according to a new survey.
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18 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | Tags: Access, Patient

Should Patients Read Doctor’s Notes? Wrong Question.

Source: Roni Zeiger, e-patients.net/Huffington Post

“When you have a doctor’s appointment, and she makes some notes and later formalizes them for your medical record, would you like read them? There’s been debate over the years about whether patients should read the notes that doctors write about them and their health issues — in academic circles, in a great Seinfeld episode where Elaine’s dermatologist won’t let her see what he wrote about her, and more recently in a New York Times piece that discusses the promising OpenNotes project.
[ More ]

18 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Notes

Survey: Patients Report Inability to Access Own Medical Records as Top Concern

Source: EMR Daily News

“American patients are worried about not being able to access their own medical records when needed, according to a survey conducted by GfK Roper for Practice Fusion, the free, web-based Electronic Health Record company.
[ More ]

17 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Patient

Open Notes

Source: Dr. Butler’s Blog

“After I had a surgery a couple of years ago, I requested a copy of the discharge summary to add to my records. It was no surprise that there were a couple of errors. “Would you like information on quitting smoking? –what??!!” A template entry error suggested that I smoked, explaining why a well meaning nurse gave me some confusing counseling. I found a few other slight variations from reality in my interviews with several providers.
[ More ]

11 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | Tags: Access, Notes

Up-To-Date Health Files Being Placed In The Hands Of Patients

Source: Voxy

“New Zealanders are being encouraged to sign-up for online access to their medical files and take ownership of their own health records.
[ More ]

11 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: New Zealand | EHR: EHR, EHR New Zealand | Tags: Access, Ownership, Patient

Sharing medical records with patients can save lives

Source: Trisha Torrey, KevinMD

“Regina Holliday’s husband, Fred, age 39, died of cancer in June 2009 leaving his wife, and his two young, beautiful children behind. During their journey through the healthcare system to try to get Fred the help he needed, too many hurdles were put in their way. Their story makes you want to scream.
[ More ]

9 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Patient, Personal Health Information, Record Sharing

Should patients see all personal health information?

Source: Brian Eastwood, HealthITExchange

“A yearlong experiment to give patients unprecedented access to their personal health information is underway at facilities in three states.
[ More ]

9 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Notes, Patient, Personal Health Information

Personal Health Records: The AMA Weighs-In

Source: Glenn Laffel, EHR Bloggers

“Last Wednesday, EHRBloggers reviewed the impact of Personal Health Records on physicians. The impact, it turns out, hasn’t been all that positive for physicians, who often find them to be unstructured sources of irrelevant health information, non-reimbursable time sinks and potentially, an increased liability risk.
[ More ]

9 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Patient, phr

Reflections after a specialist visit *without* OpenNotes

Source: e-Patient Dave, e-patients.net

“In OpenNotes, patient participants can see the visit notes their primary physicians entered. Note – primary, not specialists. I imagine they needed to keep the study design simple.
[ More ]

8 August 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Notes

Should Patients Read the Doctor’s Notes?

Source: Pauline W. Chen, The New York Times

“Their request seemed simple enough: the patient and his wife, both in their 70s, wanted a copy of what I’d written in their medical file. During their visit, I had watched them refer to a well-thumbed collection of doctors’ notes and medication lists, so when they asked for a copy of my note just before leaving, I assumed it would simply be added to the others.
[ More ]

23 July 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA

La Historia Clínica Electrónica estará implantada en todos los centros de Atención Primaria de Logroño el lunes

Source: El Médico Interactivo

“La Historia Clínica Electrónica estará implantada en todos los centros de Atención Primaria de Logroño este lunes, día 19 de julio, si bien habrá que esperar hasta finales de año para que este sistema informático denominado ‘SELENE AP’ se extienda al resto de los centros de atención primaria de La Rioja.
[ More ]

18 July 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: Spain | EHR: EHR, EHR Spain | Tags: Access, Appointments, e-prescribing, Implementation, Internet, Patient, Primary Care

Electronic Health Records, Patient-Centered Care, and Regina Halliday

Source: Maggie Mahar, Health Beat

“Today the Department of Health and Human Services announced what criteria doctors and hospitals will be required to meet if they want to receive payments to help buy the Health IT needed to computerize patients’ medical records. Under the HiTech Act’s incentive program, Medicare and Medicaid will be giving out some $27 billion over the next ten years.
[ More ]

14 July 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: News, RA News, Record Access | Country: United States | EHR: EHR, EHR USA | Tags: Access, Meaningful Use, Patient

The anxious wait: assessing the impact of patient accessible EHRs for breast cancer patients

Source: Wiljer D et al, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 10(1)

Background
Personal health records (PHRs) provide patients with access to personal health information (PHI) and targeted education. The use of PHRs has the potential to improve a wide range of outcomes, including empowering patients to be more active participants in their care. There are a number of widespread barriers to adoption, including privacy and security considerations. In addition, there are clinical concerns that patients could become anxious or distressed when accessing complex medical information. This study assesses the implementation of a PHR, and its impact on anxiety levels and perceptions of self-efficacy in a sample of breast cancer patients.
[ More ]

2 September 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: Patients, RA Research, Record Access, Science | Country: Canada | EHR: EHR, EHR Canada | Tags: Access, Oncology, phr

Rules and Access Rights of the Estonian Integrated e-Health System

Source: Tiik M. Medical and Care Compunetics 6, 2010

There should be a clear understanding that when implementing an electronic health record system (EHR), one of the hardest problems we have to solve is the access rights. In Estonia this process lasted for three years and involved all stakeholders of the healthcare sector. Special ethical committee was established to advise the decision makers and doctors to help them understand the ethical dilemmas from the patient’s and society’s point of view.
[ More ]

20 June 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: Patients, RA Research, Record Access, Science | Country: Estonia | EHR: EHR, EHR Estonia | Tags: Access, Patient

Patient Opportunities in the Estonian Electronic Health Record System

Source: Tiik M, Ross P. Medical and Care Compunetics 6, 2010

Estonia is the first country which has implemented a nationwide electronic health record system and gives full access to its citizens. This provides new opportunities to citizens, healthcare providers and e-health developers.
[ More ]

20 June 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: Patients, RA Research, Record Access, Science | Country: Estonia | EHR: EHR, EHR Estonia | Tags: Access, Empowerment, Patient, Portal

The Access to Medical Records: a systematic review

Source: Cardoso AB et al, 2005

Background:
Nowadays, the access to the patient medical records is becoming easier. The developments in information technologies makes fairly common for patients to review and amend their medical records routinely.

Aim:
Analyze the potential benefits and drawbacks of providing adult patients access to the information within their medical records, in terms of patient attitudes, doctor-patient relationship and on medical practice, by reviewing previously published research.
[ More ]

16 June 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: Patients, RA Research, Record Access, Science | EHR: EHR | Tags: emr

The right to know.

Source: McLaren P. BMJ, 303(6808)

Patients have had access to their computerised medical records since 1984 and from next month will have access to their written records as well.
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16 June 2010 | No Comments »
Categories: Patients, RA Research, Record Access, Science | Country: UK | EHR: EHR | Tags: emr