An essential public health service function is to inform, educate and empower people about health issues.? This has traditionally been accomplished through health educational resources such as brochures and? videos, media advocacy and social marketing, and health promotion program partnerships with communitybased? organizations. However, public health messages and health promotion activities are increasingly? drowned out. Patients are increasingly able to access vast but often unreliable sources of medical and? health advice online, and are bombarded by often contradictory health messages through the media. On-line? personal health records offer the transformative potential of being able to personalize health education to the? individual patient's demographic characteristics, specifically age and gender, and medical conditions, along? with decision support tools that can synthesize a great deal of medical knowledge into discrete and? actionable recommendations. It also helps address the fragmented nature of our current healthcare system? allowing for improved health outcomes and patient-centered medicine.? In Project 1, our goal is to inform the development of a model of the Personal Health Record (PHR) that? incorporates public health priorities and cognitive research to empower patients to access evidence-based? clinical preventive services. To this end, we will:? 1) Seek to understand the attitudes and beliefs held by consumers that influence general privacy and? confidentiality concerns; perceived benefits to and harm from health information technology; barriers and? drivers towards their use of a PHR; and their experience with access and utilization of a PHR;? 2) Conduct qualitative and quantitative evaluations of three large-scale implementations of PHRs in New? York City. We will explore the meaning and purpose of each of the PHRs for patients, providers, and? sponsoring institutions, describe the content requirements of a public health-oriented PHR, evaluate the? usability of different formats, determine levels of consumer satisfaction and privacy concerns, assess the? influence of the PHR on patient-provider communication, and determine the effects of the PHR on consumer? knowledge and health seeking behavior. Using the results of the evaluations we will be able to provide? constructive suggestions for the format, content, and/or user interface of future iterations of PHRs.?
