The Taiwanese method for providing patients data from multiple hospital EHR systems

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Informatics
• Health Informatics
• Health Information Systems

Background:

• Personal Health Record (PHR) systems are gaining traction in Biomedical Informatics research.
• Information Collection is a key PHR functionality, enabling patients to access external health data.
• Electronic Health Records (EHRs) at medical institutions represent a valuable external data source for PHRs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel PHR system designed for collecting patient data from multiple hospitals.
• To investigate the feasibility and design of PHR systems integrating with EHRs.
• To propose a method for facilitating Information Collection from EHR systems into PHRs.

Main Methods:

• Development of a PHR system facilitating data retrieval from 10 participating hospitals in Taiwan.
• Utilized a USB flash memory device for secure data transfer.
• System design and architecture were detailed based on implementation experiences.

Main Results:

• Successfully designed and implemented a PHR system for cross-institutional EHR data collection.
• Demonstrated the capability of retrieving patient data from 10 hospitals via a USB device.
• Gained practical insights into the challenges and solutions for EHR data integration.

Conclusions:

• The developed PHR system effectively enables patients to collect their EHR data from multiple medical institutions.
• A practical three-step method is proposed to guide future development of similar EHR-integrated PHR systems.
• This work contributes to advancing patient access to personal health information and supports the growth of PHR systems.