View source for Prescription Tablets in the Digital Age: A Cross-Sectional Study Exploring Patient and Physician Attitudes Toward the Use of Tablets for Clinic-Based Personalized Health Care Information Exchange

== Introduction ==

To help with increasing quality of health care while decreasing costs, innovative ideas with technology are being brought to the forefront. One such idea is using tablets to help with engaging patients in healthcare. However, how useful tablets are to both the patient and provider are still questioned. This study aims to understand how both patients and providers are willing to use tablets, particularly “in a proposed clinic-based tablet system for personal [[HIE|health information exchange]].”<ref name="tablet">Patel V, Hale TM, Palakodeti S, Kvedar JC, Jethwani K. Prescription Tablets in the Digital Age: A Cross-Sectional Study Exploring Patient and Physician Attitudes Toward the Use of Tablets for Clinic-Based Personalized Health Care Information Exchange. JMIR Res Protoc 2015;4(4):e116. URL: http://www.researchprotocols.org/2015/4/e116 DOI: 10.2196/resprot.3806 PMID: 26481906</ref>

== Methods ==

The main methods used were paper surveys and phone interviews; 86 patients took the surveys and five providers participated in the phone interviews (citation). The patients came from a community health center affiliated with [http://www.massgeneral.org/ Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)].<ref name="tablet"></ref> The providers are affiliated with MGH as well.<ref name="tablet"></ref> Descriptive statistics were generated and responses from the interviews were compiled.<ref name="tablet"></ref>

== Results ==

Many patients expressed interest in the proposed tablet system, 64% to be exact.<ref name="tablet"></ref> Patients noted that the tablet system would be more engaging and informative, creating a positive effect on health care for the patients.<ref name="tablet"></ref> Out of the five providers, four of them favored integrating the tablets for health information exchange. 

== Discussion ==

Seeing that the majority of patients and providers favored having tablets within a health care setting, tablets may in fact be useful and accepted for increasing knowledge for patients, among other benefits.<ref name="tablet"></ref> Further testing is needed to confirm the tablets’ usefulness in a clinical setting.<ref name="tablet"></ref>

== Comments ==

This is a nice article showing some preliminary data about the acceptance of tablets in a clinical setting. Even with the relatively small sample size, further studies can be performed with this in mind to help see who else is willing to have tablets in a clinical setting.

== References ==

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[[Category: Reviews]]
[[Category: HIE]]
[[Category:HI5313-2015-FALL]]