Hi everyone! I’m Sally Okun, Vice President for Advocacy, Policy and Patient Safety at PatientsLikeMe. Most of you probably already know me, but just in case you don’t, I really focus on bringing the patient voice to affect better treatment, services and care, and to be sure that the needs of patients are at the front of healthcare discussions. I’m also the link between PatientsLikeMe and government and regulatory agencies.
And that’s what brings me to the blog today. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is working on a new research study and they want to hear directly from patients like you about your experiences with your electronic medical records. Specifically the team at GAO is interested to learn about your experience accessing your health information electronically for viewing it yourself, downloading it to a computer or other device and/or sending it to someone else of your choosing.
Find out more below about the GAO, this new research project and who to contact if you’d like to participate.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), an agency that evaluates federal programs for Congress, is conducting research to examine patients’ experiences with electronically viewing, downloading, or transmitting their health information, which will be incorporated into a publicly available report. GAO would like to hear directly from consumers to learn about any relevant experiences they may have had in this regard (e.g., viewing health information in an online patient portal, downloading health information into a personal health record app, sending/receiving health information to/from a physician).
If you would like to volunteer to discuss your experiences with GAO, whether positive or negative, please send an email with your first name directly to GAO at HealthInfoAccess@gao.gov by June 7, 2016. GAO will contact you to schedule a short, anonymous telephone interview at your convenience to discuss your experiences.
GAO will NOT collect any personal information during the interview, such as your full name or other identifying information. In addition, GAO will only ask questions about your experiences electronically accessing your health information, not any questions about the nature of your health information itself. Any information GAO collects from consumers will be published in a manner that protects your confidentiality and anonymity.
Let your voice be heard!
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I find this very fascinating hence this program is also applicable for personal business. Like having Electronic Medical Record for your own set of patients/clients. With this I would like to quote that we, in CloudMD, provide high quality, user friendly, cloud-based software application which would become a standard software tool in the medical practice industry. ~Luke Harper
Hot off the presses is the Government Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress on patient’s access to and use of health information technology. Thirty-three members of PLM were interviewed for the report that was submitted to members of the Senate. You can read some of the comments from the interviews starting on page 14 of the report.
Here is a link to the report – http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-305
Thanks to all who responded to the request and shared your experiences
I’m sorry I wasn’t a member of PatientLikeMe when this call for volunteers to voice their experiences with the GAO was advertised on this site. The resulting GAO report (17-305) fails to identify the underlying problems with the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program that brought patients EHR patient portals; namely, that doctors and hospital representatives do the bulk of the reporting. The direct input of patients is side stepped. Read more at http://bbshealthcarebrigade.com/2017/04/patients-access-electronic-health-records/
I would be interested in hearing from other patients about their experiences with their EHR patient portals.
thanks for your support.
Thanks for the information