Most Patients Want Seamless Health Data Sharing with Doctors, Survey Finds

According to a survey conducted by ORC International, approximately 75% of American adults believe that the ability to easily share their important health information with doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers is “very important.” The survey involved 1,011 adult participants, and its findings were released by the U.S.-based Society of Participatory Medicine (SPM). VCBeat has compiled the key highlights of the survey results, as detailed below.

Daniel Z. Sands, co-founder of SPM, stated in a press release: “This survey highlights that patients are put at risk when critical health information cannot be shared across different healthcare practices and hospitals.”

Furthermore, 20% of respondents reported that they or their family members had encountered difficulties in receiving treatment due to the inability to share health records across different healthcare providers.

Although sharing health information is very important to respondents, 87% of them oppose healthcare providers charging fees for this service. The SPM report stated, “Doctors have to pay between 5,000 yuan and $50,000 to build information bridges that enable them to transmit data to blood and pathology laboratories, health information exchanges, or government agencies.”



In November 2014, a survey conducted by Truven Health Analytics and NPR found that 68% of American consumers were willing to share their health information with researchers; however, this group was more likely to consist of affluent, well-educated individuals and younger people. Among four groups—physicians, hospitals, employers, and health insurance companies—employers were the most trusted, with only 10% of participants expressing concern. The corresponding percentages for the other three groups were 11% for physicians, 14% for hospitals, and 16% for insurance companies.