patient portal and mobile technologies

Can mobile technology engage patients and providers in healthcare?

Offering patient portal access via mobile technology, through either a mobile application or an optimized adaptation of the desktop product via a native mobile browser, is viewed as having the potential to enhance the ability of individuals who are members of underserved populations to engage in their healthcare.

What is a patient portal?

Aug 07, 2015 · Several months ago, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) released its 2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, which showed how mobile health apps and other Internet-based, remote technologies can be used to engage patients with their healthcare and assist providers in meeting various meaningful use objectives.

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

Oct 31, 2016 · According to some healthcare professionals, offering a mobile patient portal is the critical next step for expanding access to personal health information and raising the level of engagement for patients who may prefer to use smartphones and other mobile devices to manage their health.

How can patient portals boost patient engagement and patient satisfaction?

Sep 01, 2017 · Although apps might serve a different purpose, patient portals could adopt certain app features that lead to better engagement success with patients. Mobile apps have the capability to record several types of data, such as activity level, nutrition, and sleep, as well as data related to a consumer's condition or disease, such as diabetes or asthma.

What is patient portal technology?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits. Discharge summaries. Medications.Sep 29, 2017

What is mobile technology in healthcare?

Mobile healthcare (mHealth) technology is the use of mobile devices, such as mobile phones and patient monitoring devices, in medicine. In short, mobile healthcare technology encompasses everything from healthcare apps to electronic healthcare records (EHRs) to home healthcare.

How is portal technology used in healthcare?

Patient portals improve the way in which patients and health care providers interact. ... You can use patient portals to retrieve lab results, ask a question or update patient profiles and insurance providers. Some patient portals also allow patients to schedule appointments and pay bills directly through the system.Feb 12, 2021

How can mobile technology benefit patients?

Mobile technology gives patients, and hospitals, a convenient medium to monitor hospital discharge instructions and double check prescriptions. Medication accuracy, a huge patient safety issue, could improve as a result. Patients receive a lot of paperwork and instructions when they are discharged from the hospital.Apr 10, 2012

What is meant by mobile technology?

Mobile technology is technology that goes where the user goes. It consists of portable two-way communications devices, computing devices and the networking technology that connects them. Currently, mobile technology is typified by internet-enabled devices like smartphones, tablets and watches.

What are the benefits of technology in healthcare?

The benefits of health information technology (IT) include its ability to store and retrieve data; the ability to rapidly communicate patient information in a legible format; improved medication safety through increased legibility, which potentially decreases the risk of medication errors; and the ease of retrieval of ...

What are the benefits and challenges of using patient portals?

What are the Top Pros and Cons of Adopting Patient Portals?Pro: Better communication with chronically ill patients.Con: Healthcare data security concerns.Pro: More complete and accurate patient information.Con: Difficult patient buy-in.Pro: Increased patient ownership of their own care.Feb 17, 2016

What specifically might portals do to engage patients?

Patient portals go beyond providing patients with a window into which they can view their health data. Most portals include features such as direct secure messaging, online appointment scheduling, online bill payments, prescription refill requests, and sometimes even data update capabilities.May 13, 2016

What types of patient portals are there?

There are two main types of patient portals: a standalone system and an integrated service. Integrated patient portal software functionality usually comes as a part of an EMR system, an EHR system or practice management software. But at their most basic, they're simply web-based tools.Feb 12, 2021

What opportunities do mobile technologies offer the healthcare industry?

The Benefits of Mobile Technology in HealthcareEasier collaboration between labs and specialists.A streamlined workflow and practice management process.Enhanced efficiency of healthcare professionals.Better-informed medication and therapy decisions.Faster patient-physician communication.More items...•Sep 28, 2020

How mobile technology is changing the healthcare industry?

Over the last three to five years, mobile technology in healthcare - often referred to as mHealth - has rapidly proliferated. ... Some of the positive results of mobile technology include improved patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans, better outcomes, and increased patient satisfaction.Aug 29, 2019

How can mobile technology help chronic disease?

Mobile phones are being used to improve nurse-patient communication and monitor health outcomes in chronic disease. Innovative applications of mobile technology are expected to increase over time in community management of cancer, heart disease, asthma and diabetes.Nov 26, 2008

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.

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 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.”

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).

Why are patient portals important?

Research shows that when patients are able to see their own health data, they gain ownership of their own wellness and are better prepared to interact with their providers about their care.

Why do providers use patient portals?

This is mainly because providers are trying to build a relationship with their patients, not just bolster patient loyalty. For many providers, patient portal use is about building trust and enhancing care.

Electronic Patient Portals

Patient portals have become more accessible over the last decade. 10 Patients can arrange appointments, review diagnostic test results, request prescription refills, communicate with clinicians, and access their medical records.

Table of Contents

Patient portals have become more accessible over the last decade. 10 Patients can arrange appointments, review diagnostic test results, request prescription refills, communicate with clinicians, and access their medical records.

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