Advancing Health Equity Through Substance Use Medical Record Data Sharing: Insights from Healthcare Providers

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Public Health
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Fragmented healthcare systems hinder critical data sharing, impacting patient care.
• Sensitive health information, such as substance use disorder data, faces privacy and access challenges.
• Effective care delivery relies on seamless patient-provider health information exchange.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore healthcare providers' perspectives on barriers and facilitators to substance use disorder data sharing.
• To understand the impact of substance use data sharing on patient care outcomes.
• To identify strategies for improving sensitive health data access and privacy.

Main Methods:

• Focus groups conducted with 31 healthcare providers across four treatment facilities.
• Discussions centered on privacy concerns, data-sharing workflows, and specific HEDIS metrics.
• Thematic analysis used to identify key barriers and facilitators to data sharing.

Main Results:

• Top barriers included patient reluctance (48%), data access issues (42%), and poor provider coordination (29%).
• Facilitators identified were patient understanding (26%), patient-provider relationship (16%), and reliable health information systems (16%).
• Complexity of privacy regulations and incomplete health information also posed challenges.

Conclusions:

• Addressing barriers to sensitive data sharing is crucial for improving care coordination.
• Enhanced systems interoperability, education, and policy reform are needed.
• Understanding provider perspectives is key to overcoming challenges in health data exchange.