BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality, yet effective screening tests are often underused. Electronic patient messages and personalized risk assessments delivered via an electronic personal health record could increase screening rates. METHODS We conducted a randomized controlled trial in 14 ambulatory health centers involving 1103 patients ranging in age from 50 ...

Tourism as well as international business travel creates health risks for individuals and populations both in host societies and home countries. One strategy to reduce health-related risks to travelers is to provide travelers and relevant caregivers timely, ongoing access to their own health information. Many websites offer health advice for travelers. For example, the WHO and US Department of ...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine public opinion on alternatives to project-specific consent for use of their personal information for health research. DESIGN The authors conducted a fixed-response random-digit dialed telephone survey of 1,230 adults across Canada. MEASUREMENTS We measured attitudes toward privacy and health research; trust in different institutions to keep informat...

THE HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MOVEMENT FOcuses much of its energy on the use of electronic medical records by clinicians, but the use of information technology by patients carries equal promise. Outside of health care, the public routinely uses computers and smart phones to access information and perform tasks with a click of a button. Patients seek similar ease in accessing health informat...

BACKGROUND Full sharing of the electronic health record with patients has been identified as an important opportunity to engage patients in their health and health care. The My HealtheVet Pilot, the initial personal health record of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, allowed patients and their delegates to view and download content in their electronic health record, including clinical notes...

K. Gartrell1; A.M. Trinkoff2; C.L. Storr2; M.L. Wilson3; A.P. Gurses4 1National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine/Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, Bethesda, MD; 2University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD; 3Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD; 4Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins School of...