October 23, 2012: When teenagers are the custody of the state's juvenile justice system, family members may not be keeping track of the child's health issues -- immunization records, sexually transmitted infections, mental illnesses, substance abuse or even a heart defect that may have been repaired in infancy.
At the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Dr. Arash Anoshiravani, a pediatrician who specializes in adolescent medicine and works with Santa Clara juvenile justice professionals to focus on the health needs of adolescents in the system, interviewed 79 incarcerated teenagers who were receiving medical treatment. He asked them if they were interested in have the right/ability to access their on-line health records. (Teenagers who are in the cycles of the juvenile justice system don't often have the help or parents or guardians to accompany them to medical appointments to keep health records up to date, as the study's authors stated in their press information.)
Almost 90% said yes. Dr. Anoshiravani was surprised by the response.
"...the expressed willingness to share that information with parents or physicians was surprising...especially given the trust breakdowns many detained youth have experienced in their lives...", Dr. Anoshiravani and his team reported in the study, which was published yesterday on-line in Pediatrics. "...these findings suggest that implementing online health information technology would be acceptable and potentially useful both during and after detention episodes."
As reported yesterday on CBC Radio-Canada:
...While questions about a digital divide in underserved communities remain, 65% of the youth surveyed said they used personal computers or laptops to access the internet, followed by cell phone and other mobile devices at 42%, with many saying they used both.
Customizing privacy settings to meet teens’ confidentiality needs around their reproductive and mental health information could be become easier as electronic medical records evolve, he added.
Earlier this month, doctors at three hospitals in the U.S. who opened up their medical notes to patients said they were initially worried the notes might make patients anxious. That didn't happen. Instead, patients said they had a better understanding of their health issues, but that medical jargon and abbreviations in charts still pose a challenge.
Below, a presentation on serving the health needs of adolescent teenagers in the nuvenile justice system, given by Dr. Anoshiravani in 2010:
While questions about a digital divide in underserved communities remain, 65 per cent of the youth surveyed said they used personal computers or laptops to access the internet, followed by cell phone and other mobile devices at 42 per cent, with many saying they used both.
Customizing privacy settings to meet teens’ confidentiality needs around their reproductive and mental health information could be become easier as electronic medical records evolve, he added.
Earlier this month, doctors at three hospitals in the U.S. who opened up their medical notes to patients said they were initially worried the notes might make patients anxious. That didn't happen. Instead, patients said they had a better understanding of their health issues.
But medical jargon and abbreviations in charts still pose a challenge, they said.
Comments