Only an approximate one-quarter of patients are accessing their medical record via web or mobile interface, despite the fact most are interested in doing so, according to a new survey from Deerfield, Ill.-based research and consulting firm Aeffect.

Aeffect, which partnered on the effort with 88 Brand Partners, surveyed 1,000 consumers who represent who potential users of health information technology and found 52 percent were interested in using an electronic health record (EHR) but hadn’t done so already. This was the highest percentage of category of any of Aeffect’s four divisions: interested non-users, trial users, disinterested non-users, and regular users.

Of those interested non-users, 49 percent say access to an online medical record would be influential if they were looking for a new physician. Sixty-percent of these people are less satisfied with their physician, which was high compared to the other stages.

Those who have used it, nine percent are trial users and 13 percent are regular users. Thirty-five percent of the regular users have been accessing their EHR for at least three years. They prefer to interact with their doctor over email (52) and 67 percent say access to online medical records would be influential in their choice of a new doctor. Of the trial users, one-third started using an EHR within the last few months.