Effective and secure sharing of pediatric patients' health information among patients, their parents or guardian and clinical teams can be challenging to achieve.
While adolescents grow and develop at different rates, some children may need access to their EHRs before others, depending on whether they have any medical conditions and their overall health.
Here are five recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the use of EHR and technology platforms:
1. When sharing health information with patients, providers should use a secure platform. However, in the case of using a non-secure platform, such as text message, both the provider and patient must confirm the message contains the appropriate type of content.
2. Electronic communication should not be used as the sole method to share diagnoses and clinical data.
3. Create acknowledgement that all patients have the right to access their own health data, and the parent or guardian serves as a supervisor of that data.
4. Establish clear expectations of patients and medical teams, and when new technology becomes available, recognize that the organization's policies may need to change as a result.
5. EHR and technology vendors, along with lawmakers, should ensure that EHRs allow healthcare teams and patients to identify clinical data that can compromise patient confidentiality.