Page 100 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

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

6

Concluding Discussion

George isham, M.D., M.S.
HealthPartners
Moderator

The audience was asked to reflect on the entire workshop and to ask
questions of any of the speakers who presented during the day.
One participant remarked that the lack of standardization of personal
health records (PHRs) and electronic health records (EHRs) is fascinat-
ing. It is encouraging that there are efforts to develop standards for the
interface of these two and there appears to be a great deal of opportunity
for developing display approaches and tools that address some health
literacy concerns. Yet there is much that is unknown about how a range
of people with differing skill levels and different education levels can
understand and effectively use these tools. A digital divide remains, with
the people on the wrong side of the divide tending to be the people with
poorer health status and poorer health outcomes. Gauthier’s position that
patient-centered care equals user-centered design is a great summary of
what needs to be done, the participant concluded.
One participant commented that Susannah Fox suggests that, rather
than thinking of Internet use in terms of a digital divide where every-
one can be classified as being in one camp or another—like an on/off
switch—it makes more sense to think of the situation in terms of a ther-
mometer where everyone is on a continuum of use and everyone’s use
is increasing.
Another audience member said that she believes there is a need for
standardization in the exchange of information among PHRs and between
PHRs and the EHRs. However there is a danger in rushing too quickly
to standardize before there is enough information about what is impor-

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.