A Novel Approach to Patient Portal Activation Data to Power Equity Improvements

Overview

Journal J Am Med Inform Assoc

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Medical Informatics

Date 2024 Jun 18

PMID 38887009

Authors

Anoop Muniyappa

Benjamin Weia

Nicole Ling

Julie OBrien

Mariamawit Tamerat

William Daniel Soulsby

Joanne Yim

Aris Oates

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: There are significant disparities in access and utilization of patient portals by age, language, race, and ethnicity.

Materials And Methods: We developed ambulatory and inpatient portal activation equity dashboards to understand disparities in initial portal activation, identify targets for improvement, and enable monitoring of interventions over time. We selected key metrics focused on episodes of care and filters to enable high-level overviews and granular data selection to meet the needs of health system leaders and individual clinical units.

Results: In addition to highlighting disparities by age, preferred language, race and ethnicity, and insurance payor, the dashboards enabled development and monitoring of interventions to improve portal activation and equity.

Discussion And Conclusions: Data visualization tools that provide easily accessible, timely, and customizable data can enable a variety of stakeholders to understand and address healthcare disparities, such as patient portal activation. Further institutional efforts are needed to address the persistent inequities highlighted by these dashboards.

Citing Articles

Reflections on interactive visualization of electronic health records: past, present, future.

Arleo A, Chen A, Gotz D, Kandaswamy S, Bernard J J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2024; 31(11):2423-2428.

PMID: 39429003 PMC: 11491741. DOI: 10.1093/jamia/ocae249.

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