Public fear of medical data theft slows acceptance of electronic health records

A Harris Interactive survey has found that 63 percent of Americans fear their health data will be stolen -- slowing public acceptance of electronic health records.

Medscape: Fear Of Data Theft Blunts Public Acceptance Of EHRs
Worries about the security of personal information continue to blunt public acceptance of electronic health record (EHR) systems now used by more than half of the nation's office-based physicians, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Xerox. Sixty-three percent of Americans fear that a computer hacker will steal their personal data, down just 1 percentage point from 2010. Not much else in public opinion has changed over the last 2 years. Roughly half of Americans still say that they are concerned that their digitized health data could be lost, damaged, or corrupted. And one half continue to worry that a power outage or computer crash could prevent a physician from accessing their chart (Lowes, 8/24).

In the meantime, however, Walgreens launches a new electronic health records system across its stores --

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Company Partnering With Walgreens On Electronic Health Records
Pharmacy giant Walgreens is rolling out nationwide an electronic health records system built upon a platform developed by Carrollton-based Greenway Medical Technologies. The system is already operating in more than 200 Walgreens stores and will expand chainwide to nearly 8,000 locations by the end of next summer. Walgreens established a relationship with Greenway in 2010, deploying the metro Atlanta company's electronic records system to its worksite health centers, which offer primary and acute care (Williams, 8/24).