Patient-generated health data (PGHD) has not yet been embraced as a revolutionary tool for healthcare, despite being touted as having the potential to increase patient engagement and clinician insight, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Researchers interviewed leaders from health systems, EHR vendors and PGHD solution providers, as well as patients with chronic conditions. The interviews were analyzed to parse out various approaches to PGHD, assess patients’ responses to those approaches and identify related challenges.

Across three approaches to collecting PGHD — through medical history, validated questionnaires and surveys, and biometric and health activity — while patients were amenable to each approach, they still raised concerns about the security of their health data and about the value of providing PGHD. Health systems, too, questioned the “clinical usefulness” of PGHD, and also reported issues with data quality and a lack of reimbursement for implementing PGHD programs.

As a result, according to the study, despite encouragement from federal agencies like the HHS, the sharing and usage of PGHD is far from widespread, due in large part to questions about its actual worth.

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