The electronic health record as a patient engagement tool: Mirroring clinicians' screen to create a shared mental model

Onur Asan, Jeanne Tyszka, Bradley Crotty

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    10 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Objective: Electronic health records (EHRs) in physician offices can both enhance and detract from the patient experience. Best practices have emerged focusing on screen sharing. We sought to determine if adding a second monitor, mirroring the EHR for patients, would be welcome and useful for patients and clinicians. Materials and Methods: This mixed-method study was conducted in a general medicine clinic from March to June 2016. Clinicians and patients met in a specially equipped exam room with a patient-facing monitor. Visits were video-recorded to assess time spent viewing the EHR and followed by interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed using established qualitative methods. Results: Eight clinicians and 24 patients participated. Main themes included the second screen serving as a catalyst for patient engagement, augmenting the clinic visit in a meaningful way, improving transparency of the care process and documentation, and providing a substantially different experience for patients than a shared single screen. Concerns and suggestions for improvement were also reported. Quantitative results showed high patient engagement times with the EHR (25% of the visit length) compared to reports in previous studies. The median satisfaction score was 5 out of 5 for patients and 3.3 out of 5 for clinicians. Discussion and Conclusion: Providing patient access to the EHRs with this design was linked with several benefits including improved patient engagement, education, transparency, comprehension, and trust. Future studies should explore how best to display information in such screens for patients and identify impact on care, safety, and quality.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)42-48
    Number of pages7
    JournalJAMIA Open
    Volume1
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1 Jul 2018

    Keywords

    • Collaborative health IT
    • Doctor-patient communication
    • Human-computer interaction
    • Patient empowerment

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The electronic health record as a patient engagement tool: Mirroring clinicians' screen to create a shared mental model'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this