title: Factors influencing consumer adoption of USB-based Personal Health Records in Taiwan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Usually patients receive healthcare services from multiple hospitals, and consequently their healthcare data are dispersed over many facilities' paper and electronic-based record systems. Therefore, many countries have encouraged the research on data interoperability, access, and patient authorization. This study is an important part of a national project to build an information exchange environment for cross-hospital digital medical records carried out by the Department of Health (DOH) of Taiwan in May 2008. The key objective of the core project is to set up a portable data exchange environment in order to enable people to maintain and own their essential health information.This study is aimed at exploring the factors influencing behavior and adoption of USB-based Personal Health Records (PHR) in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quota sampling was used, and structured questionnaires were distributed to the outpatient department at ten medical centers which participated in the DOH project to establish the information exchange environment across hospitals. A total of 3000 questionnaires were distributed and 1549 responses were collected, out of those 1465 were valid, accumulating the response rate to 48.83%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  1025 out of 1465 respondents had expressed their willingness to apply for the USB-PHR. Detailed analysis of the data reflected that there was a remarkable difference in the "usage intention" between the PHR adopters and non-adopters (χ2 =182.4, p < 0.001). From the result of multivariate logistic regression analyses, we found the key factors affecting patients' adoption pattern were Usage Intention (OR, 9.43, 95%C.I., 5.87-15.16), Perceived Usefulness (OR, 1.60; 95%C.I., 1.11-2.29) and Subjective Norm (OR, 1.47; 95%C.I., 1.21-1.78).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher Usage Intentions, Perceived Usefulness and Subjective Norm of patients were found to be the key factors influencing PHR adoption. Thus, we suggest that government and hospitals should promote the potential usefulness of PHR, and physicians should encourage patients' to adopt the PHR.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Shan
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.forename: Shabbir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Syed-Abdul
authors.forename: Sanjay P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Sood
authors.forename: Peisan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Min-Huei
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Cheng-Hsun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Yu-Chuan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hsyien-Chia
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003256:Community Participation; D016494:Computer Security / Q000592:standards; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000523:psychology; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D055991:Health Records, Personal / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000379:methods; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan