BACKGROUND Personal health records (PHRs) are increasingly being deployed worldwide, but their rates of adoption by patients vary widely across countries and health systems. Five main categories of adopters are usually considered when evaluating the diffusion of innovations: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate adoption of the...

Personal health information (PHI) contained in email communications is governed by the same health information management legislation as PHI contained in health records. As a result, confi dentiality and privacy are important considerations if email is being used to communicate PHI to recipients who are not part of a secure internal network. Internet-based email systems generally do not provide...

BACKGROUND US health care providers are increasingly demanding patient engagement with digital health technologies to enroll in care, access personal health information, communicate with providers, and monitor their own health. Such engagement may be difficult for disadvantaged populations who may have limited health literacy, time constraints, or competing priorities. OBJECTIVE We aimed to u...

The explosive growth of handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) in health care has been nothing short of amazing. What applications--business and clinical--do these devices have in medicine, and what is their potential? PDAs are simple and intuitive; their applications require minimal interaction time, so they have minimal impact on work flow: the investment is small; and the lightweight fo...

J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2008;15:729 –736. DOI 10.1197/jamia.M2547. ccess ss in or nts ts able. port si-

OBJECTIVE To characterize the opinions, emotions, and actions taken by patients who viewed their electronic problem list via an online personal health record (PHR). MATERIALS AND METHODS An online survey of patients who viewed their problem lists, as maintained by their healthcare provider, in a web-based PHR linked to an electronic health record for the first time. RESULTS A total 3,649 pa...

According to David Blair, 1.3 billion Google Android devices are shipped to customers each day. In addition, one-third of all new televisions are now connected to the Internet. During the next quarter of 2013, sales of mobile devices (smartphones, Tablets) are expected to eclipse those of personal computers for Internet connectivity. The Internet age of (almost) “everywhere” arrived quickly and...