Empowering patients in the healthcare process

: an analysis about patients’ perception

Abstract

Personal Health Records (PHR) are becoming an important tool for patients to become active participants of their health care and help providers to improve health outcomes and systems performance. However, for PHR to be fully used by individuals it is necessary to understand the value they place on this tool and how can it be designed to improve its usage among patients. Therefore, this study deepens about Portuguese patients’ perception of PHR and which are the motivations for healthy and ill individuals to track their personal health status. A cross-sectional online survey of patients’ perception on PHR conducted to Portuguese citizens showed that although there is a lack of awareness of the concept of personal health records and use of online tools to perform health related activities, there is a positive perception about PHR and willingness to start using it in a near future.

Date of Award	18 Feb 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Frazão Ferreira Fernandes Pinheiro (Supervisor)