Factors affecting patients' use of electronic personal health records
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Factors that affect patients' use of electronic personal health records (ePHRs) in the UK
IRAS ID
208831
Contact name
Alaa Abd-Alrazaq
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
The National Health Service (NHS) in England has recently introduced a nationwide electronic personal health record (ePHR) called Patient Online. This system is a web-based tool that enables patients to access some parts of their GP-held medical records (i.e. medications and allergies) and perform other services such as booking appointments and requesting repeat medications. Despite many potential benefits of ePHRs, patients’ adoption of such tools is often very low. Understanding the factors that affect patients' use of ePHRs is considered very important to increase adoption rates and, in turn, to improve the success of implementation of ePHRs. According to the systematic review that we have conducted, no studies have been carried out in the UK to investigate this area. So, the overall aim of this study is to identify factors that influence patients’ use of ePHRs in the UK.
This project consists of two studies: Study 1 is a longitudinal study where data will be collected on two occasions over a 6 months period. At first, questionnaires will be distributed to adult patients (≥18 years) who have not ever used Patient Online (nonusers). Those nonusers will be recruited from 3-4 general practices. Six months later, participants' use of Patient Online will be assessed through checking the system logs by a member of their GP practice (e.g. local administrative and clerical staff). In respect to Study 2, a qualitative study will be carried out by recruiting 2-3 focus groups. Similar to the previous study, eligible participants are adult patients who must not have used Patient Online before. The period of each focus group is about 45 minutes.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SC/0323
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jun 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion