Assessment and adoption of web-based health information systems

The Personal Health Record (PHR) is an emerging web-based healthcare IT system, which is a hot topic of discussion among healthcare professionals and many other people. It is a very new concept and many companies are now offering PHR services to their customers. The PHR is created and kept up to date by the user, healthcare providers or insurance companies. Users can enter their information and manage their PHR. The PHR can include everything from medical histories to test results, physician's notes, prescriptions and information from their pharmacies and insurance companies. Hence PHR empowers the patients and gives them full access to their healthcare data. Many employers, insurance companies, hospitals and physicians are offering PHR services to their consumers. There are also many websites from where consumers can sign up for free PHR services. Due to the many benefits associated with PHR services, consumers find it very attractive to use. But there are also many concerns hindering the adoption of PHR. In this paper we shall review the factors affecting adoption of PHR systems using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and formulate hypotheses for PHR adoption.

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