The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will launch a five-year national survey to assess patient attitudes toward the privacy and security of electronic health records, according to a recent Federal Register announcement, Government Health IT reports (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 2/17).
ONC will interview 2,000 individuals annually for five years, for a total of 10,000 interviews (Goedert, Health Data Management, 2/17).
The survey will ask:
- If individuals have privacy and security concerns related to EHRs, such as the possibility of unauthorized access to their private medical information; and
- If individuals have withheld information from physicians because of EHR privacy and security concerns.
ONC said the information will allow for better understanding of people's attitudes toward privacy and security, "as well as inform policy and programmatic objectives" for EHRs (Government Health IT, 2/17).