Experiences and expectation with the use of health data: a qualitative interview study in primary care

BACKGROUND: Health data is important, however, not always well managed. The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of patients and primary care physicians, their expectations and the obstacles encountered when using health data – both patient-generated as well as physician-generated. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative interview study. We included adult persons who were ready to talk about the topic. Participants were recruited from primary care. The interviews were recorded using a dictaphone, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a content analysis method. RESULTS: Altogether, we conducted 14 individual interviews, with patients (n = 7) and with physicians (n = 7). We found that both patients and physicians emphasized the importance of easy access to health data in digital health information systems. However, patients may not always understand medical terminology and physicians found that the quality of medical documents needs inspection. Both parties found that patient-generated data is a useful source of information, and that it should be used more often. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic has highlighted the value of easy access to health data. The development of a health information system is useful to health care providers and patients, enables the transfer of evidence-based medicine, and supports health literacy.