Benefits of Patient-Generated Health Data to EHR Use

Patient-generated health data has the power to improve patient care, not just by completing EHR data, but by empowering the patient to engage in their own health.

Between completing EHR information and empowering the patient as a part of the care team, patient-generated health data has the potential to be an integral part of enhancing the overall care for an individual.

The healthcare industry is making headway toward realizing this end in several efforts made to increase the prevalence of patient-generated health data, including using patient-generated data as a part of Stage 3 Meaningful Use requirements, underscore its benefits in other health IT-related initatives. But what makes patient-generated health data unique? And how can it aid the complete use of EHRs and improve patient care? By taking a look at patient-generated health data and how it’s gathered, we can better understand its overall healthcare benefits:

According to the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), patient-generated health data is any information shared with a provider by a patient. For example, family histories or information about personal medication plans both qualify as patient-generated health data. Recently, the healthcare industry has pushed to have patient-generated health data be universally collected to help providers get a clearer vision of a patient’s health status on their EHR...