Schmit Cason, Sunshine Gregory, Pepin Dawn, Ramanathan Tara, Menon Akshara, Penn Matthew
1 Chenega Professional and Technical Services, LLC for Public Health Law Program, Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
2 Department of Health Policy & Management, Texas A&M University School of Public Health, College Station, TX, USA.
Public Health Rep. 2017 Sep/Oct;132(5):585-592. doi: 10.1177/0033354917722994. Epub 2017 Aug 16.
In all health system sectors, electronic health information (EHI) is created, used, released, and reused. We examined states' efforts to address EHI uses in law to provide an understanding of the EHI legal environment.
Attorney researchers used WestlawNext to search for EHI-related statutes and regulations of the US states, US territories, and the District of Columbia in effect as of January 2014. The researchers independently catalogued provisions by the EHI use described in the law. Researchers resolved discrepancies through peer review meetings and recorded the consensus codes for each law.
This study identified 2364 EHI-related laws representing 49 EHI uses in 54 jurisdictions. A total of 18 EHI uses were regulated by ≥10 jurisdictions. More than 750 laws addressed 2 or more EHI uses. Jurisdictions varied by the number of EHI laws in effect, with a mean of 44 laws. Texas had the most EHI laws (n = 145). Hawaii and South Carolina had the fewest (n = 14 each).
The EHI legal landscape is complex. The large quantity and diversity of laws complicate legal analysis, likely delay implementation of public health solutions, and might be detrimental to the development of emerging health information technology. Research is needed to understand the effect of EHI-related laws.
在所有卫生系统部门中，电子健康信息（EHI）被创建、使用、发布和再利用。我们研究了各州在法律层面解决EHI使用问题的努力，以了解EHI的法律环境。
律师研究人员使用WestlawNext搜索截至2014年1月生效的美国各州、美国领地和哥伦比亚特区与EHI相关的法规。研究人员根据法律中描述的EHI使用情况独立编目条款。研究人员通过同行评审会议解决分歧，并记录每条法律的共识代码。
本研究确定了2364条与EHI相关的法律，代表了54个司法管辖区的49种EHI用途。共有18种EHI用途受到≥10个司法管辖区的监管。超过750条法律涉及2种或更多的EHI用途。各司法管辖区生效的EHI法律数量各不相同，平均为44条。得克萨斯州的EHI法律最多（n = 145）。夏威夷州和南卡罗来纳州的最少（各n = 14）。
EHI的法律格局复杂。法律的数量众多且多样，使法律分析变得复杂，可能会延迟公共卫生解决方案的实施，并且可能对新兴健康信息技术的发展不利。需要开展研究以了解与EHI相关的法律的影响。
