Adoption and Use of Proxy Online Record Access in Sweden - A Retrospective Analysis

Patients' online record access (ORA) enables patients to involve their family caregivers in care management by sharing health information, either through proxy access functionality or informally. In this study, we explore the adoption and use of proxy ORA in Sweden from Feb 2013 until June 2018 when the function was terminated, using publicly available usage statistics. In total, proxy access was shared 13 103 times in this period, and 7 917 of those shares were accepted. While adoption was slow to begin with, it increased over time and in total a proxy accessed a shared record 145 393 times. Although the available data has limitations, and further research is needed on the demographics of both patients and proxies, this study indicates there is a need for proxy ORA in Sweden.