Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing trend towards consumer-based healthcare in which consumers are increasingly becoming partners in their own care. One way of accomplishing this is to provide consumers with access to their health records through the use of Personal Health Record (PHR) systems. In spite of their potential benefits, recent research has shown that PHRs are not yet popular or well known to consumers. The overall objective of this research is to investigate the influences of various personal, behavioral, and environmental factors on the adoption and use of PHR systems by Canadian consumers. Drawing on both the information systems and behavioral healthcare literatures such a model is developed and presented. The proposed model will be validated using a longitudinal design over a period of 16 months involving patients from two local clinics. The study participants will be introduced to an existing PHR system at those clinics. The system will subsequently be made available for their potential use. Users will be surveyed at various points in time regarding their perceptions about the system utilizing both close-ended and open-ended questions. Collected data will be analyzed using structure equation modeling and qualitative data analysis techniques.

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