Accessing and Sharing Electronic Personal Health Data

An increasing attention has been given to personal health data (PHD) research over the last years. The rise of researchers’ interest could be attributed to the increasing amount of PHD that are stored across various databases, as a result of individuals’ rapidly-evolving digital life. Accessing and sharing PHD is essential to create personalized health services and to involve patients in the design process of these services. This paper conducts a survey of literature to present an overview of literature about accessing and sharing of PHD. This study aims to identify limitations in research and propose future directions. Sixteen studies were selected from various bibliographic databases and were classified according to three criteria: research type, empirical type and contribution type. The results provide a preliminary review with respect to access and sharing of PHD, addressing a need for more research about PHD accessibility and for solution proposals for both topics.