EHR Design for Psoriasis Patients

Electronic health records (EHRs) are becoming increasingly common as part of routine care. EHRs are beneficial in optimizing patient-physician interaction as well as useful tools for managing support therapy, which is an integral part of care for chronic conditions. EHRs only function optimally if users accept them. A new study sought to describe the ideal EHR design for psoriasis patients.

Using literature research and focus group data, the researchers created a questionnaire that patients filled out either on paper or electronically. Patients were recruited from an outpatient clinic as well as online either through patient associations or social media.

The final analysis included responses from 187 psoriasis patients. Overall, 84.4% of patients can think of entering data into an EHR. Most patients would rather enter data at home (72.2%) as opposed to in the waiting room (44.9%) and would prefer to use their own internet-ready device (laptop/computer: 62.6%, smartphone/tablet: 61.5%) as opposed to a provided device (46.0%). More than half of patients (55.6%) said they would be okay with entering data monthly if it took no longer than 10 minutes, and 27.8% said they would accept it even if data entry too longer. Nearly all of patients expressed data privacy concerns; 96.7% said they should be able to decide who has access to their data.

The researchers reported differences in preferences among subgroups stratified by age, educational level, psoriasis burden, number of internet activities, use of electronic questionnaires, and mode of administration. Compared to younger patients, older ones were less willing to enter data in the waiting room, use their own smartphone/tablet, or use a provided device. Younger patients were more willing to commit to daily data entry between one and 10 minutes. Patients with the highest level of education (when compared to low or middle educational levels) were more willing to use their own device to enter data but less likely to use a provided device. They were also less willing to commit to daily data entry. Highly burdened patients were more willing to enter data at home, and patients with a lower disease burden were more likely to say daily data entry was too often.