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CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) Copyright © 2022 Correspondence: Maria Hägglund maria.hagglund@kbh.uu.se

Patients' online access to their EHR together with the rapid proliferation of medical information on the Internet has changed how patients use information to learn about their health. Patients' tendency to turn to the Internet to find information about their health and care is well-documented. However, little is known about patients' information seeking behavior when using online EHRs. By using information horizons as an analytical tool this paper aims to investigate the information behavior of cancer patients who have chosen to view their EHRs (readers) and to those who have not made that option (non-readers). Thirty interviews were conducted with patients. Based on information horizons, it seems that non-reading is associated with living in a narrower information world in comparison to readers. The findings do not suggest that the smallness would be a result of active avoidance of information, or that it would be counterproductive for the patients. The findings suggest, however, that EHRs would benefit from comprehensive linking to authoritative health information sources to help users to understand their contents. In parallel, healthcare professionals should be more aware of their personal role as a key source of health information to those who choose not to read their EHRs. ; CC BY 4.0 © The Author(s) 2021. Corresponding author: Isto Huvila, Department of ALM, Uppsala University, Thunbergsvägen 3H, Uppsala 75105, Sweden. Email: isto.huvila@abm.uu.se The author(s) disclosed of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was partly supported by NordForsk through the funding to Nordic eHealth for Patients: Benchmarking and Developing for the Future (NORDeHEALTH), project number 100477.

Critical thinking is one of the key competencies listed by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) [1], a central European Community organization, and is also mentioned as a learning outcome for higher education by international organizations, such as ABET, ACM, and IEEE, as well as in numerous national and university legislations regarding higher education degrees. The ability to communicate, not least in writing, is another important competence our students are supposed to gain during their education. There is thus high agreement regarding the importance of these competencies, but it is not clear how to achieve this.

Patients' access to electronic health records (EHRs) is debated worldwide, and access to psychiatry records is even more criticized. There is a nationwide service in Sweden which offers all citizens the opportunity to read their EHR, including clinical notes. This study aims to explore Swedish national and local policy regulations regarding patients' access to their psychiatric notes and describe to what extent patients currently are offered access to them. The rationale behind the study is that current policies and current practices may differ between the 21 self-governing regions, although there is a national regulation. We gathered web-based information from policy documents and regulations from each region's website. We also conducted key stakeholder interviews with respondents from the regions and cross-regional private care providers, using a qualitative approach. The results show that 17 of 21 regions share psychiatric notes with patients, where forensic psychiatric care was the most excluded psychiatric care setting. All private care providers reported that they mainly follow the regions' guidelines. Our findings show that regional differences concerning sharing psychiatric notes persist, despite Swedish regulations and a national policy that stipulates equal care for everyone. The differences, however, appear to have decreased over time, and we report evidence that the regions are moving toward increased transparency for psychiatry patients. ; NORDeHEALTH

Patients' access to electronic health records (EHRs) is debated worldwide, and access to psychiatry records is even more criticized. There is a nationwide service in Sweden which offers all citizens the opportunity to read their EHR, including clinical notes. This study aims to explore Swedish national and local policy regulations regarding patients' access to their psychiatric notes and describe to what extent patients currently are offered access to them. The rationale behind the study is that current policies and current practices may differ between the 21 self-governing regions, although there is a national regulation. We gathered web-based information from policy documents and regulations from each region's website. We also conducted key stakeholder interviews with respondents from the regions and cross-regional private care providers, using a qualitative approach. The results show that 17 of 21 regions share psychiatric notes with patients, where forensic psychiatric care was the most excluded psychiatric care setting. All private care providers reported that they mainly follow the regions' guidelines. Our findings show that regional differences concerning sharing psychiatric notes persist, despite Swedish regulations and a national policy that stipulates equal care for everyone. The differences, however, appear to have decreased over time, and we report evidence that the regions are moving toward increased transparency for psychiatry patients. ; CC BY 4.0 © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Correspondence: annika.barkas@kbh.uu.s This work was supported by NordForsk through the funding to Nordic eHealth for Patients: Benchmarking and Developing for the Future (NORDeHEALTH), project number 10047

PurposeData from a national patient survey (N = 1,155) of the Swedish PAEHR "Journalen" users were analysed, and an extended version of the theory of technological frames was developed to explain the variation in the technological and informational framing of information technologies found in the data.Design/methodology/approachPatient Accessible Electronic Health Records (PAEHRs) are implemented globally to address challenges with an ageing population. However, firstly, little is known about age-related variation in PAEHR use, and secondly, user perceptions of the PAEHR technology and the health record information and how the technology and information–related perceptions are linked to each other. The purpose of this study is to investigate these two under-studied aspects of PAEHRs and propose a framework based on the theory of technological frames to support studying the second aspect, i.e. the interplay of information and technology–related perceptions.FindingsThe results suggest that younger respondents were more likely to be interested in PAEHR contents for general interest. However, they did not value online access to the information as high as older ones. Older respondents were instead inclined to use medical records information to understand their health condition, prepare for visits, become involved in their own healthcare and think that technology has a much potential. Moreover, the oldest respondents were more likely to consider the information in PAEHRs useful and aimed for them but to experience the technology as inherently difficult to use.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample excludes non-users and is not a representative sample of the population of Sweden. However, although the data contain an unknown bias, there are no specific reasons to believe that it would differently affect the survey's age groups.Practical implicationsAge should be taken into account as a key factor that influences perceptions of the usefulness of PAEHRs. It is also crucial to consider separately patients' views of PAEHRs as a technology and of the information contained in the EHR when developing and evaluating existing and future systems and information provision for patients.Social implicationsThis study contributes to bridging the gap between information behaviour and systems design research by showing how the theory of technological frames complemented with parallel informational frames to provide a potentially powerful framework for elucidating distinct conceptualisations of (information) technologies and the information they mediate. The empirical findings show how information and information technology needs relating to PAEHRs vary according to age. In contrast to the assumptions in much of the earlier work, they need to be addressed separately.Originality/valueFew earlier studies focus on (1) age-related variation in PAEHR use and (2) user perceptions of the PAEHR technology and the health record information and how the technology and information–related perceptions are linked to each other.

Background As part of a EU project, the Swedish county Uppsala launched a patient portal, Journalen in 2012 [1]. Patients can now access their Electronic Health Records (EHR) online, which is aimed to increase patient empowerment. The medical professionals reacted strongly on patients accessing the medical records. Main concerns were related to quality of care, the effect on their work environment, providing bad news through the eHealth service, and also the wellbeing of patients. While the opportunities of implementing these e-health services seem promising, the concerns of the medical professionals have to be understood and addressed, as well as the actual use of the system by patients. This presentation integrates results from two interview studies with physicians and patients related to patients accessing their medical records online [2,3]. Method The presented results are synthesis of the interviews studies with 12 physicians [2] and 30 patients [3], which took place about 6–12 months after the launch of the portal. The synthesis presented in this paper focus on Technological Frames [4] of physicians and patients including the attitudes and experiences in relation to possible (1) anxiety creation, (2) increased of workload, and (3) the general value of patients reading medical records. Results Anxiety creation due to receiving bad news. Many physicians believe that breaking bad news to patients during a patient encounter is vital as this would give them the possibility to also explain treat- ments and answer questions. Somewhat unexpectedly, some patients preferred receiving bad news through Journalen instead of waiting for the physicians. The patients argue that waiting times causes more anxiety. The choice of not accessing is also important, as there are patients who do not want to receive bad news before a patient encounter. Workload increases. Many physicians are worried about the work- load of doctors, as reading the medical record online may result in increased number of phone calls because of anxious patients. However, many patients did not tend to take any additional contacts to ask questions. Some of the patients even believe that access to their medical records reduces the number of contacts with healthcare. Usefulness of accessing online. Many physicians are concerned that online access will have a negative impact on the patient such as increased anxiety and misconceptions as they lack understanding of medical terms. Unlike the doctors' perspective, many patients argue that they do not have major difficulties in understanding the contents. They also argue that Journalen was central to their coping with their decease. Conclusion From this study it is clear that the Technological Frames of physicians differ from those of patients, and that they have different attitudes and experiences towards the system. The intention from the politicians was that the system would contribute to Patient Empowerment, but that framing of the technology differs from the physicians' view, as they are concerned of the consequences. More research is needed on the framing of the technology and how that has been changed after the launch of the system. [1] Erlingsdottir, G., Lindholm, C. When patient empowerment encounters professional autonomy: The conflict and negotiation process of inscribing an eHealth service. Scandinavian journal of public administration 2015;19(29):27- 48. [2] Grünloh, C., Cajander, Å., Myreteg, G., "The Record is our Work Tool!" - Physicians' Framing of a Patient Portal in Sweden. J Med Internet Res (submitted). [3] Rexhepi, H., Åhlfeldt, R.-M., Cajander, Å, & Huvila, I. (2015). Cancer Patients' Attitudes and Experiences of Online Medical Records, 1–8. Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Health Information Management Research ISHIMR 2015. [4] Orlikowski, W.J., Gash, D.C. Technological Frames: Making sense of information technology in organizations. Transactions on Information Systems 1994;12(2):174–207. doi:10.1145/196734.196745 ; QC 20171102