Turns out that many Americans may be far more willing to share their personal medical data with outsiders than they are their purchasing or social media activity. And even though most are okay with having their medical information maintained online and shared, only about half have ever viewed it themselves.
This comes from a survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults by the health care analytics company Truven Health Analytics. Truven teams up with National Public Radio to extract information via polls from a database of 82,000 individuals. This poll focused on medical data collection and use.
The pollsters reported that 75 percent of those surveyed said their primary care clinician has an electronic medical record system in place. Asked if they were willing to share the data for research purposes, 68 percent said they were.
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But when asked if they would share their purchasing and social media activity with researchers, that number dropped to less than a quarter (22 percent).
Of those who expressed concerns about sharing their health records, here's who they did not want to share them with:
- Health insurer—16 percent;
- Hospitals—14 percent;
- Physicians—11 percent;
- Employers—10 percent.
Of those who said their primary care provider maintained their data via an EMR system, 56 percent said they had actually taken a look at the information.
One odd but unexplained trend that popped up: While 90 percent of survey respondents over the age of 65 said their primary care provider uses an EMR system, only 60 percent of millennials answered "yes" to that question.
"An overwhelming number of patients have had experiences with EMRs, which seems to point towards a concerted effort among health care providers to share information as a means to faster, more accurate care," said Michael Taylor, chief medical officer at Truven Health Analytics. "While privacy concerns have been an issue in the past, as EMRs continue to become more prevalent, it appears that Americans are becoming increasingly comfortable sharing this type of information with employers, providers and health plans."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
