Page 52 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

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knowledgeable patients are better able to make informed health care deci-
sions, stay healthy, and seek services when they are needed than patients
who are not as knowledgeable about their care. In the pilot project now
underway, patients are able to access data from the electronic health
record, supplement those data with self-entered data, and control access
to that information. The pilot project began in 1999 and has about 7,500
participants spread across nine VA Medical Centers. Once the same kinds
of features are available in the national My HealtheVet program, the pilot
will be discontinued.
In November 2003, on Veterans Day, VA introduced the national My
HealtheVet, beginning with some patient education modules. Since then a
variety of features have been added, including online prescription refills
(which has been one of the most popular features), content centers (ori-
ented to specific conditions or health and wellness), self-assessment tools,
health journals and e-logs, veteran-specific conditions, seasonal health
reminders, a wellness calendar, and a complete medications view.
My HealtheVet (www.myhealth.va.gov) has three tiers of access. The
first tier is intended for visitors, who can view health education libraries
and other publicly available content. The second tier is for veterans who
self-register for an account and begin to build a personal health record. In
particular, patients who register for My HealtheVet can begin to input and
track personal information. The third tier of access demands in-person
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authentication and connects the veteran registration data to the veteran
as a VA patient. This authentication allows the veteran access to addi-
tional features, such as the ability to view medication names when order-
ing VA prescription refills and access to the VA medication history as an
extract from the VA electronic health record. Many of the screens within
My HealtheVet have printer-friendly functions. There is even a printer-
friendly wallet card on which patients can choose to print specific data.
There are several different tabs available in My HealtheVet. Using the
pharmacy tab, VA patients can refill VA prescriptions, keep track of their
prescription history, and even track over-the-counter medications and
prescription medications that they are getting from physicians outside the
VA. The Research Health tab allows patients to look at multiple media,
including interactive images and video on diseases and conditions of
interest. There are also direct links to MedLine Plus and Healthwise. 10
9

8 Data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index indicate that “in-person authenti-
cation” is difficult to understand; therefore, VA will review the language to try to make the
information and process understandable to patients in a much more user-friendly way.
9 MedLine Plus is a website network database of health information provided by the
National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health for use by consumers
and health care providers.
10 “Healthwise is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help people make better
health decisions. Nearly 100 million times a year, people turn to Healthwise information to

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