News Feature | May 9, 2014

Convenience Outweighs Risk When It Comes To Online Records

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Convenience Most Important In Online Healthcare Data Access

The majority of people with chronic conditions recently surveyed by Accenture say the ability to check their records online is more important than potential privacy breaches.

Accenture has released results of a consumer survey of chronically ill patients which asked them how they view the benefits and risks of viewing their records online. The survey found, “More than half (51 percent) of consumers with chronic conditions believe the benefits of being able to access medical information through electronic medical records outweigh the perceived risk of privacy invasion.”

Sixty-five percent of chronically ill consumers surveyed said they are “somewhat” or “very” concerned about privacy invasion with EMR. That’s less than those who voiced concerns over online banking (70 percent), online shopping (68 percent) and credit card use in stores (69 percent).

Accenture also found that these consumers feel accessing their records is their right; 69 percent said they want access to all of their health information. The top two reasons that these chronically ill patients did not access their information were they didn’t know how they felt their records were accurate so there was no need.

Healthcare IT News reports that 47 percent of Americans suffer from a chronic condition and “these individuals are some of the most actively engaged patients at most stages of patient care, according to the poll – including during medical diagnosis (91 percent), managing treatment (87 percent) and maintaining general health on a day-to-day basis (84 percent).”

"Healthcare will need to adapt to a new generation of individuals who are taking a more proactive role in managing their health and expect to have transparency," said Kaveh Safavi MD, who leads Accenture's global health business, reports Healthcare IT News.

"As consumers continue to demand more access to their personal data online, we expect that patients will gain more power to manage some aspects of their own care," said Safavi. "This will not only make healthcare more effective but also more affordable, as consumers doing more for themselves will free up the system to be more productive."