Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center: Case Study

In 2006, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre designed a web site for patients enrolled in a clinical research trial (Curtis, Cheng, Rose, & Tsai, 2011). MyChart’s success has resulted from healthcare providers engaging patients in their own healthcare and utilizing electronic access to personal health information (Curtis et al., 2011). The biggest challenges stem from institutional and end-user adoption, usability, and trust in acute healthcare settings (Curtis et al., 2011). MyChart continues to respond to developmental challenges of adoption, feature designs and usability improvements, multi-site integration and service enabling, and the development of research areas (Curtis et al., 2011). Sunnybrook has experienced a positive change in

patient satisfaction and continuity of care and a reduction in workflow and resource time for appointments, reminders, and follow-ups (Curtis et al., 2011). Patient’s felt access to test results had been most useful, followed by appointments, contacts, and personalized clinic information (Curtis et al., 2011). The research agenda for Personal Health Records (PHR) will focus on function evaluation, PHR adoption and attitudes, PHR privacy and security, and PHR architecture (Curtis et al., 2011). In 2006, approximately 70 million people in the U.S. had access to a PHR (Curtis et al., 2011). Providers and patients continue to seek more flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and personalized means to healthcare delivery (Curtis et al., 2011). Conclusively, standards-based development supported by research-based evidence will be two key areas that will affect and propel adoption and use (Curtis et al., 2011). More scientific methods into MyChart’s design and outcome reviews will help to validate the rigor behind the research (Curtis et al., 2011).
Reference
Curtis, J., Cheng, S., Rose, K., & Tsai, O. (2011). Promoting adoption, usability, and research for personal health records in Canada: The MyChart experience. Healthcare Management Forum, 24(3), 149-154. Retrieved from http://hmf.sagepub.com/content/24/3/149.full.pdf