Expectations and Fears of Urban Versus Rural Population Regarding the use of an Electronic Health Record Qualitative Survey About Usage and Acceptance of an Electronic Health Record in Austria

Nowadays electronic health records are evaluated and implemented worldwide. Future stakeholders, especially patients are not always integrated into all aspects of this process. An important problem with the rollout of a countrywide e-health project is the unequal distribution of the access to modern media, especially to computer and internet ("regional digital gap"), of people living in urban and rural areas - and if there are differences regarding the usage of an electronic health record between these two groups. Differences in these aspects between urban and rural areas where evaluated using an empirical trial. This qualitative survey was based on 20 interviews focused on the discrepancy between urban and rural areas regarding the opinion on the electronic health record in Austria. The results show that differences in some aspects regarding "personal data input", "health information", "own usage" and "data abuse" of an electronic health record exists.