patient portal academic papers

by Gregorio Herzog 10 min read

Patient Portals Facilitating Engagement With Inpatient ...

25 hours ago Sep 01, 2017 · In this paper, we discuss two forms of patient-facing health IT tools—patient portals and applications (apps)—and highlight how, despite several limitations of each, combining high-yield features of mobile health (mHealth) apps with portals could increase patient engagement and self-management and be more effective than either of them alone ... >> Go To The Portal


What are the outcomes of patient portals?

Sep 01, 2017 · In this paper, we discuss two forms of patient-facing health IT tools—patient portals and applications (apps)—and highlight how, despite several limitations of each, combining high-yield features of mobile health (mHealth) apps with portals could increase patient engagement and self-management and be more effective than either of them alone ...

Are patient-facing IT tools patient portals or applications more effective?

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Do patient portals facilitate patient discovery of errors in electronic health records?

Feb 24, 2022 · Using studies about what prerequisites must be met for an effective use of a patient portal, this paper aims at determining whether portal usage should be priority for rural hospitals. Or whether funds should be better spent on securing EMR and delay portal usage in favor of securing electronic records first. Date of publication. May 2017; DOI

What is the portal for patient engagement?

patient’s portal (Dooling, 2012). The input of the caregiver is valued because they advance the quality of care by sharing a common goal with the provider (Paul, 2013). Ultimately, it is the healthcare facility that determines what information is …

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What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are intended to engage patients by giving them access to medical information ; however, if patients are unable to understand the information or the system is not usable, patients will not take advantage of them. Despite several aforementioned drawbacks, apps have used evolving innovative designs to engage consumers and offer unique features and functions that could be translated to patient portal design. For instance, Apple's ResearchKit's Diabetes app pings the user daily to update disease and symptom-related information. Check-in questions or user-friendly alerts in portals could similarly be explored for engaging more patients their health care. Alerts could ask if the patient understands an abnormal result, direct them to helpful resources, and encourage test result follow-up. Finally, test results in the portal need to be easily understood by laypeople or displayed using simplified medical terms. For example, a portal might display elevated cholesterol as "↑LDL cholesterol," or even just display the number without a flag, whereas a health app may label it as “bad cholesterol.”

Who wrote Patient Portals and Health Apps: Pitfalls, Promises, and What One Might Learn from the

This statement accompanies the article Patient portals and health apps: Pitfalls, promises, and what one might learn from the other authored by Jessica L. Baldwin and co-authored by Hardeep Singh, Dean F. Sittig, Traber Davis Giardina and submitted to Healthcare as an Article Type. Authors collectively affirm that this manuscript represents original work that has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.We also affirm that all authors listed contributed significantly to the project and manuscript. Furthermore we confirm that none of our authors have disclosures and we declare noconflict of interest.

What is the use of health information technology?

Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potentially increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care. Despite having increased access to their health data, patients do not always understand this information or its implications, ...

How can information technology improve patient care?

There is growing interest in electronic access to health information and the use of digital data for both disease and health-related tracking. Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potential ly increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care.1 For example, health IT can be used to facilitate information exchange with clinicians and instruct patients when to act upon clinical issues, such as out of range physiologic parameters, follow-up of test results, and complications of medication use. 2 Tools such as personal health records, patient portals, and various mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have been developed to help patients engage in their own care. Already, a significant number of patients use health IT; therefore, it is essential that patient-facing health IT be tailored to their needs. In this paper, we discuss two forms of patient-facing health IT tools—patient portals and apps—to highlight how, despite several limitations of each, combining high-yield features of mHealth apps with portals could increase patient engagement and self-management and be more effective than either of them alone. This could potentially improve both patient experience and outcomes related to patient-facing health IT.

What is the HealthKit app?

In June 2014, Apple announced the HealthKit cloud application programming interface (API) and its partnership with Epic (Verona, WI), an electronic health record vendor who also makes MyChart (a popular patient portal), and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN).

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are web- and mobile-based programs that allow patients and their proxies remotely to interact with healthcare systems and their care providers. 1–3 These portals commonly allow users to view selected information from the electronic health record (EHR), review test results, message providers, schedule appointments, and pay medical bills. 4 A report by the Institute of Medicine specifies online access to personal health records, such as patient portals, as a promising technology to support patient engagement. 5 Functionality delivered through patient portals has been shown to improve chronic disease management, increase adherence to preventive care such as immunizations and screening, improve patient satisfaction, and better outcomes for some patients with chronic disease. 6–14

What is a well designed patient portal?

Well-designed patient portals, when combined with policies that promote use, offer significant opportunity for patients to engage in their healthcare. Without proper management, portals can suffer from decreased use and poor support from providers. In this work, we discuss the patient portal policies that govern account registration and management, shared access, and test result reporting at VUMC. We anticipate that other organizations can implement concepts from our policies to support the meaningful use of patient portals.

What is proxy access?

Proxy access is defined as an access class in which one individual receives access to another individual’s protected health information, communication tools, and functions in MHAV. In all cases, the proxy had to meet the eligibility criteria outlined in the table, even if the patient did not. Individuals could serve as proxies for competent adult patients, patients who were children or adolescents, and adult patients who met legal criteria for lacking the capacity to make medical decisions. VUMC policy distinguished two general categories of proxies: delegates and surrogates. The policy defined delegates as “an adult individual invited by a MHAV account holder to have access to that account holder’s MHAV account,” and stipulated that the account holder be a competent adult. For example, a competent adult may invite her spouse, adult friend, and adult child aged 18 or older to have delegate access to her account.

What is MHAV in Vanderbilt?

My Health at Vanderbilt (MHAV) is an institutionally developed patient portal which launched in a limited fashion in 2003 before being more widely deployed throughout all clinical specialties starting in 2007 ( Figure 1 ). The VUMC informatics, legal and operational teams internally established policies and procedures to govern MHAV use by patients, proxies, and healthcare providers. The initial policies are described by Osborn et al. 29 MHAV and its associated EHR were certified for Meaningful Use stages 1 and 2. MHAV supports core functionality similar to those of other patient portals, including secure messaging, appointment scheduling, bill management, access to select laboratory results, and access to select EHR data. 29,32 There were incremental changes to usage logging and functionality throughout the duration of continuous use.

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Background and Significance

  • Patient portals are web- and mobile-based programs that allow patients and their proxies remotely to interact with healthcare systems and their care providers.1–3 These portals commonly allow users to view selected information from the electronic health record (EHR), review test results, message providers, schedule appointments, and pay medical bills.4 A report …
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Methods

  • Study site
    Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is a private, nonprofit, and academic healthcare center located in Middle Tennessee. VUMC includes the 758-bed Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH) and the 267-bed Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt (MCJCHV). VUH rece…
  • My Health at Vanderbilt
    My Health at Vanderbilt (MHAV) is an institutionally developed patient portal which launched in a limited fashion in 2003 before being more widely deployed throughout all clinical specialties starting in 2007 (Figure 1). The VUMC informatics, legal and operational teams internally establi…
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Results

  • Policy on patient access and registration
    During the period covered by this review, My Health at Vanderbilt was made available to all competent adults age 18 and older, regardless of whether they had an established relationship with a Vanderbilt site (ie, whether they had a medical record number). With permission from a pa…
  • Proxy and nonpatient access
    The access policy also allowed a number of proxy access classes to account for diverse ways that family members or other caregivers support individuals receiving health care. Proxy access is defined as an access class in which one individual receives access to another individual’s protec…
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Discussion

  • Patients are increasingly interested in accessing their personal health data through the patient portal.4,24,34 There remains a need to understand how portal policies can enable use and promote engagement.13 Previous studies have found evidence supporting patient portal use and improved chronic disease management, improved patient satisfaction, and improved outcomes…
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Conclusion

  • Well-designed patient portals, when combined with policies that promote use, offer significant opportunity for patients to engage in their healthcare. Without proper management, portals can suffer from decreased use and poor support from providers. In this work, we discuss the patient portal policies that govern account registration and management, shared access, and test resul…
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Contributorship Statement

  • BS, JW, and TR conceived the study idea and design. BS, JC, BC, GS, and TR retrieved and described relevant policy information. BS and JW conducted quantitative data analysis. All authors participated in writing and reviewed the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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