Health Record Banking: A Viable Option For Consumers

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 28 Feb 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The Louisville Health Information Exchange, Inc. (LouHIE), a nonprofit community organization based in Louisville, KY., in association with the Noblis Center for Health Innovation, recently completed an eight-week e-health research initiative intended to assess the readiness of 1.2 million consumers, their healthcare providers and related health information product and services (HIPS) firms to support a community-wide health record banking system.

Conducted in August and September of 2007, the research identified several common themes pertaining to overall community interest in participating in a health record banking (HRB) service. These include the need for a trusted not-for-profit community organization to establish the service, a trusted environment, as well as privacy and security.

The telephone based research showed that 69 percent of consumers would value a health record bank type of service, provided their physicians supported it. Twenty-four percent said they would pay an average of $5.00 per month for an account. Adding value to the telephone-based results, the focus group research found that most consumers would like the choice to opt-in to the service and decide what information to view; understood the benefits of sharing clinical information; have a desire to make sharing easier; and a need to trust the service.

"The research concludes that health record banking is an interesting choice that could be supported by most consumers, said Judah Thornewill, Acting Executive Director, LouHIE. " We are excited about the positive response and look forward to bringing a health record banking service to the Louisville community."

"As we expected, the results helped us to identify the ideal business model for the greater Louisville community," said Alan Dowling, Executive Director of Noblis Center for Health Innovation. "We are now ready to move forward in helping LouHIE find the right vendor(s) to build and operate the health record banking system that will best suit the community."

Described as a central repository, the health record banking service provides a private and secure location for each person to store their medical records from all sources via a deposit/withdrawal process. Upon enrollment into the system, individual consumers can deposit or withdraw medical records as well as control what data can be viewed by various clinical providers.

"We believe the health record banking model is a viable choice for consumers, however it must be based on strong consumer control principles," added Barbara Cox, National Practice Director of the Information Management & Systems practice at Noblis.

Use of the health record banking model is being encouraged by the Health Record Banking Alliance (HRBA). Each of the communities that adopt this approach will have a number of tools available to them that promote consumer choice, consent, and collaboration.

"Next month, the HRBA will finalize its set of health record banking principles for use by vendors and communities and will be made available on the HRBA Website," concluded William Yasnoff, President of HRBA.

The LouHIE research results are currently available at www.LouHIE.org; The HRB Principles are currently available at www.healthbanking.org. Interested parties can join both communities.

About LouHIE

The Louisville Health Information Exchange, Inc. (LouHIE) is a nonprofit collaborative organization based in Louisville, Kentucky. Its vision is to improve quality and contain rising costs of healthcare in the Louisville area by providing patients and their providers anytime, anywhere access to complete healthcare information and decision-support.

About Healthcare at Noblis

The Noblis Center for Health Innovation assists private-sector and government health organizations in achieving their missions through an integrative and collaborative approach. It combines strategic thinking with innovation to support clients' planning, performance innovation, information management & systems, facilities planning and applied research efforts.

About Noblis

Noblis is a nonprofit strategy, technology and decision science organization that helps clients solve complex scientific, systems, process and infrastructure problems in ways that benefit the public. Noblis brings the best of scientific thought, management and engineering know-how to find solutions that are practical, efficient and effective. You will find Noblis at work in many fields, including healthcare; national and homeland security; transportation; criminal justice; energy and the environment; oceans, atmosphere and space; and public safety.

About Health Record Banking Alliance

Founded in 2006, the HRBA is a non-profit corporation formed to assist stakeholders in the promotion of community repositories of electronic health records by increasing awareness of the model and developing principles, guidelines, policies, and standards that can facilitate its use.. Health Record Banks can improve the safety and efficiency of patient care, public health, and medical research through the availability of secure and complete electronic lifetime health records controlled by consumers.

Healthcare at Noblis