Evidence continues to mount that consumers not only accept EMRs, but want to have access to the data they contain. The latest on this subject comes in the form of a new Accenture survey, which concluded that 41 percent of US consumers would be willing to switch doctors to obtain online access to their EMR data.
To get a sense of how consumers are responding to the EMR revolution, Accenture surveyed more than 9,000 people in nine countries. The survey sought to assess consumer perceptions of their doctors’ electronic capabilities across nine countries: Australia Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain, and the United States. (The survey included 1,000 US consumers.)
Researchers with Harris interactive, which fielded the study, found that at present, roughly one third of US consumers (36 percent) have full access to their EMR. However, 57 percent of consumers surveyed are self-tracking their personal health information, keeping data on items such as their health history (37 percent), physical activity (34 percent) and other health indicators such as blood pressure and weight.
Other survey results suggest that consumers on something of a collision course with doctors when it comes to access to medical data. While roughly four out of five consumers (84 percent) believe they should have full access to the EMR data, only one third of doctors (36 percent) agree. The same study found that the majority of US doctors (65 percent) believe patient should have only limited access to their records.
These results strongly suggest that sharing full EMR data with patients is likely to become common practice in the future. After all, it seems that engaged patients are most of the way there already, and will continue to put pressure on doctors to open up the kimono for the foreseeable future.
P.S. This data dovetails nicely with another recent report by independent research firms Aeffect and 88 Brand Partners which concludes that almost 50 percent of patients take EMR access into account when they consider choosing a healthcare provider.
