Report Finds Patient Support for Sharing Health Information Varies Based on Purpose

Health informatics, privacy and security and social media are among the top healthcare issues for 2012, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

The report, "Top Health Industry Issues of 2012: Connecting in Uncertainty," includes responses from 1,000 U.S. adult consumers. PwC found that 60 percent of respondents would be comfortable sharing their health data among healthcare organizations if it would improve coordination of their care and 54 percent would do so to support real-time decision making for their care.

Comfort with sharing personal health information wavered, however, beyond these purposes: 36 percent would share their information to support analysis of their physician's performance; 29 percent would to provide data to identify groups or patients who are at risk; and 17 percent of consumers would not share their data for any of these reasons.

Other findings include the following:
•    30 percent of consumers would choose one hospital over another if it had clear privacy and security policies and cost, quality and access were equal.
•    32 percent of consumers had used some form of social media — Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Google+, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, foursquare or other sites, such as WebMD — for healthcare purposes.
•    18 percent of consumers used Facebook for healthcare purposes, making it the most common form of social media reported for this use.

Related Articles on Health IT and Patient Engagement:

Study: U.S. Patients Need More Control Over EHRs for Healthcare to Gain Their Benefits
Half of Physicians Say EHRs are Safer Than Paper, But Patients Still Wary

Survey: Number of Consumers Using Mobile Phones for Health Info More Than Doubles Since Last Year

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Articles We Think You'll Like

 

Featured Whitepapers

Featured Webinars