Health Transformation

As part of National Health IT Week 2008 held in Washington, DC June 9-13, Kaiser Permanente, through independent market research company StrategyOne, released the results of a nationwide survey conducted between May 8-11, 2008 to gauge Americans awareness and perceptions of electronic health records (http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/pressreleases/nat/nat_080612_healthit.html). Key findings indicate that Americans are using some of the basic online tools for health information. The results are interesting:

• 65 percent of respondents have gone online to learn about a medical condition, and 38 percent have used their insurance company's online tools to learn more about their care, up from 29 percent in 2007.


• The research also revealed that Americans continue to have concerns about privacy and thus require assurances from all parties that store personal data that information is secure.


• 47 percent had a preference for doctors who use EHRs and 61 percent had a preference for insurance companies who employed EHRs.


• 51 percent agreed that health IT should be a top priority for the next president to ensure that all Americans have access to their own personal medical records electronically. Kaiser Permanente is leading the way to make this vision a reality.