ACI SPECIAL ISSUE: "ADOLESCENT PRIVACY & THE ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD" (2022)

During adolescence, individuals continue to explore their developing independence and may increasingly engage in activities with substantial implications for their health and wellness. Adolescents are more likely to disclose sensitive health information to healthcare professionals around topics such as sexuality, mental health, and drug use if they have confidence that the disclosed health information remains private. Attempts to balance adolescent privacy and parents’ and guardians’ responsibility to care for their minor children are challenged by a great variety of applicable state laws and health system policies.

Patient portals have become ubiquitous and are critical in giving patients and their families digital access to their health information. Patient portals also provide an easy way to interact remotely with the healthcare system. However, adolescent privacy concerns have increased with the expanded access of electronic health information under the 21st Century Cures Act and other efforts to increase the transparency of health records to patients and their families. This new and unprecedented access to electronic health information raises the potential for breaches of sensitive medical information to families without the adolescent’s consent or the health professionals’ knowledge. The increased interoperability and exchange of health information in the setting of state-by-state variability in laws also creates challenges in sharing protected health information in a way that remains legally compliant.

Health professionals and health systems face the burden of balancing adolescents’ and guardian’s rights of access to health information with privacy given diverse state laws, increased interoperability, health system policies, local interpretations of the 21st Century Cures Act and other federal regulations, and the capabilities of local electronic health record system implementations.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

This special issue on “Adolescent Privacy and the Electronic Health Record” of Applied Clinical Informatics targets papers addressing topics at the intersection of: 

• Adolescent privacy and consent for care
• Regulatory pressures from federal, state, and institutional policies
• The realities of existing health information technologies implemented in the real world. This includes solutions that have been developed and implemented by healthcare institutions, analysis of legal or regulatory materials and their effect on care, case reports of breaches of privacy and their effect on care, as well as the effect that the immediate disclosure of information has had on care experiences.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Submissions are due October 16, 2022 in ACI’s submission site at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acij. Authors must modify the title of the submission to alert the journal that the submission is pertaining to the Special Issue from <title> to “Adolescent Privacy and the Electronic Health Record - <title>. Authors are encouraged to vet their ideas with the special editorial team, who may also grant extensions to the deadline.

QUESTIONS REGARDING THE ISSUE?

Please direct any questions regarding the special issue, logistics of submissions, requirements and more to trent.rosenbloom@vumc.org.

EDITORIAL TEAM

S. Trent Rosenbloom, MD, MPH, FACMI, FAMIA
Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs & Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Director, Clinical Effectiveness Research for VHAN
Director, My Health at Vanderbilt
Associate Director, Medical Innovators Development Program
Professor, Internal Medicine & Pediatrics
Professor, Department of Nursing
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
trent.rosenbloom@vumc.org

Dr. S. Trent Rosenbloom is a Professor and Vice Chair of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University and is an Internist and Pediatrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He directs My Health at Vanderbilt, one of the oldest patient portals in continuous use in the world, adopted by over 800k patients and their proxies at Vanderbilt. Dr. Rosenbloom has been a strong advocate for patient and caregiver access to electronic health information as one of the best means to support their engagement and partnering in their own healthcare.

Marianne Sharko, MD, MS
Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics and Population Health Sciences
Health Informatics Division, Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program (ECRIP) Scholar
Weill Cornell Medicine
sharkom@med.cornell.edu

Dr. Marianne Sharko is a Pediatrician at Weill Cornell Medicine and is an Instructor in the departments of Pediatrics and Population Health Sciences, in the Division of Health Informatics. She has completed a master’s program in Health Informatics and a residency in Preventive Medicine at Weill Cornell. As a scholar in the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program, her research interests include protecting patient privacy in the electronic health record and addressing social determinants of health to promote equitable healthcare.

Bryan Steitz, PhD
Instructor
Department of Biomedical Informatics
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
bryan.steitz.1@vumc.org

Dr. Bryan Steitz is an Instructor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University. He completed his doctorate degree in Biomedical Informatics as a NLM predoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating data-driven tools to improve communication and information sharing between patients and healthcare workers as they transition between care environments.