Benefits of Patient-Generated Health Data, Patient Engagement

Between improving chronic disease management, boosting the Precision Medicine Initiative, and driving patient satisfaction, patient-generated health data has many healthcare benefits.

Between improving chronic disease management, boosting the Precision Medicine Initiative, and driving patient satisfaction, patient-generated health data has many healthcare benefits. Through the current health technology boom amongst patients and the near-ubiquitous adoption of EHRs amongst providers, patient-generated health data has become an important aspect of patient engagement.

As defined by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, patient-generated health data are “health-related data—including health history, symptoms, biometric data, treatment history, lifestyle choices, and other information—created, recorded, gathered, or inferred by or from patients or their designees to help address a health concern.”As indicated by its name, patient-generated health data requires the engagement and participation of the patient. Through a collection of mHealth apps and remote patient monitoring systems, patients collect their own health data, later to be integrated into their overall health file.

But patient-generated health data does more than just add more information to an EHR – it changes the way providers interact with their patients outside of the hospital, helps healthcare experts develop new treatment plans, and even makes the patient feel like an important partner in care. By supporting patient-generated health data collection, providers are able to better the healthcare industry by helping build a wealth of information clinicians, researchers, and patients can all use...