Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Electronic health records are one of the most commonly adopted eHealth innovations. Many Canadian healthcare organizations have implemented electronic health records in an effort to enhance health service efficiency, effectiveness and safety, as well as encourage patient participation, education and empowerment. Unfortunately, many of the potential benefits to patients, families and the healthcare system remain unseen. Studies have demonstrated that promising outcomes of electronic health records can be obtained when patients and families are effectively engaged in the adoption, use and evaluation of the technology. Despite knowing this, there is a lack of Canadian healthcare organizations using patient and family engagement strategies to enhance their electronic health record system use, even when patient engagement functions like patient portals are present. Therefore, the purposes of the proposed dissemination activities are to: 1) Share the findings of previous studies that have aimed to improve electronic health record and patient portal outcomes through patient and family engagement to relevant stakeholders; 2) Explore practical strategies that Canadian healthcare organizations can use to further engage patients and families in electronic health record and patient portal adoption, use, and evaluation, and; 3) Inform the development of a framework to support the use of effective patient and family engagement strategies in electronic health record and patient portal adoption, use, and evaluation. To accomplish these aims, the investigators will host focus groups, a one-day dissemination symposium, and will subsequently develop an open-access publication of the symposium proceedings for distribution across Canada. A patient and family oriented research strategy will be used to inform the activity design, execution and dissemination of the research activity results.