scholarly journals How to Quantify Patient Portal Use: A Systematic Review of Utilization Metrics (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren L Beal ◽  
Jacob M Kolman ◽  
Stephen L Jones ◽  
Aroub Khleif ◽  
Terri Menser

BACKGROUND Use of patient portals has been associated with positive outcomes in patient engagement and satisfaction; portal studies have also connected portal use as well as the nature of users’ interactions with portals and the contents of their generated data to meaningful cost and quality outcomes. Incentive programs in the USA have encouraged uptake of health information technology, including portals, by setting standards for meaningful use of such technology. However, despite widespread interest in patient portal use and adoption, studies on patient portals differ in actual metrics used to operationalize and track utilization, leading to unsystematic and incommensurable characterizations of use. OBJECTIVE No review has systematically assessed the measurements used to investigate patient portal utilization. Therefore, the objective of this study is to apply systematic review criteria to identify and compare methods for quantifying and reporting patient portal use. METHODS Original studies with quantifiable metrics of portal use, available in English between 2014 and the search date of October 17, 2018, were obtained from PubMed, using the Medical Subject Heading term “patient portals” and related keyword searches. The first search round included full text review of all results to confirm a priori data charting elements of interest and suggest additional categories inductively; this round was supplemented by retrieval of works cited in systematic reviews (based on title screening). An additional search round included broader keywords. Studies were screened at abstract-level for inclusion, confirmed by at least two raters. Included studies were analyzed for metrics related to basic use / adoption; frequency of use; duration metrics; intensity; and stratification of users into “super user” or high-utilization types. Additional categories related to provider (including care team / administrative) use of the portal were identified inductively. Analysis of whether metrics aligned with Meaningful Use Stage 2 categories (MU-2) employed by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was also conducted. RESULTS Of 315 distinct search results, 87 met inclusion criteria. Of the a priori metrics, plus provider use, most studies included either three types (27 studies, 31.03%) or four types (22, 25.29%) of metrics. Nine studies (10.34%) only reported the patient use / adoption metric, and only one study (1.15%) reported all six. Of the U.S.-based studies (76), 18 were explicitly motivated by MU-2 compliance; 40 (52.63%) at least mentioned these incentives, but only 6 (7.89%) presented metrics from which compliance rates could be inferred. CONCLUSIONS Portal utilization measures in the research literature can fall below established standards for “meaningful” or they can substantively exceed those standards in the type and number of utilization properties measured. Understanding how patient portal use has been defined and operationalized may encourage more consistent, well-defined, and perhaps more meaningful standards for utilization, informing future portal development.

10.2196/23493 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. e23493
Author(s):  
Lauren L Beal ◽  
Jacob M Kolman ◽  
Stephen L Jones ◽  
Aroub Khleif ◽  
Terri Menser

Background Use of patient portals has been associated with positive outcomes in patient engagement and satisfaction. Portal studies have also connected portal use, as well as the nature of users’ interactions with portals, and the contents of their generated data to meaningful cost and quality outcomes. Incentive programs in the United States have encouraged uptake of health information technology, including patient portals, by setting standards for meaningful use of such technology. However, despite widespread interest in patient portal use and adoption, studies on patient portals differ in actual metrics used to operationalize and track utilization, leading to unsystematic and incommensurable characterizations of use. No known review has systematically assessed the measurements used to investigate patient portal utilization. Objective The objective of this study was to apply systematic review criteria to identify and compare methods for quantifying and reporting patient portal use. Methods Original studies with quantifiable metrics of portal use published in English between 2014 and the search date of October 17, 2018, were obtained from PubMed using the Medical Subject Heading term “Patient Portals” and related keyword searches. The first search round included full text review of all results to confirm a priori data charting elements of interest and suggest additional categories inductively; this round was supplemented by the retrieval of works cited in systematic reviews (based on title screening of all citations). An additional search round included broader keywords identified during the full-text review of the first round. Second round results were screened at abstract level for inclusion and confirmed by at least two raters. Included studies were analyzed for metrics related to basic use/adoption, frequency of use, duration metrics, intensity of use, and stratification of users into “super user” or high utilizers. Additional categories related to provider (including care team/administrative) use of the portal were identified inductively. Additional analyses included metrics aligned with meaningful use stage 2 (MU-2) categories employed by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the association between the number of portal metrics examined and the number of citations and the journal impact factor. Results Of 315 distinct search results, 87 met the inclusion criteria. Of the a priori metrics, plus provider use, most studies included either three (26 studies, 30%) or four (23 studies, 26%) metrics. Nine studies (10%) only reported the patient use/adoption metric and only one study (1%) reported all six metrics. Of the US-based studies (n=76), 18 (24%) were explicitly motivated by MU-2 compliance; 40 studies (53%) at least mentioned these incentives, but only 6 studies (8%) presented metrics from which compliance rates could be inferred. Finally, the number of metrics examined was not associated with either the number of citations or the publishing journal’s impact factor. Conclusions Portal utilization measures in the research literature can fall below established standards for “meaningful” or they can substantively exceed those standards in the type and number of utilization properties measured. Understanding how patient portal use has been defined and operationalized may encourage more consistent, well-defined, and perhaps more meaningful standards for utilization, informing future portal development.


BMJ Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. e016298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janaka Lagoo ◽  
Steven R Lopushinsky ◽  
Alex B Haynes ◽  
Paul Bain ◽  
Helene Flageole ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo examine the effectiveness and meaningful use of paediatric surgical safety checklists (SSCs) and their implementation strategies through a systematic review with narrative synthesis.Summary background dataSince the launch of the WHO SSC, checklists have been integrated into surgical systems worldwide. Information is sparse on how SSCs have been integrated into the paediatric surgical environment.MethodsA broad search strategy was created using Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, Web of Science, Science Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Citation Index. Abstracts and full texts were screened independently, in duplicate for inclusion. Extracted study characteristic and outcomes generated themes explored through subgroup analyses and idea webbing.Results1826 of 1921 studies were excluded after title and abstract review (kappa 0.77) and 47 after full-text review (kappa 0.86). 20 studies were of sufficient quality for narrative synthesis. Clinical outcomes were not affected by SSC introduction in studies without implementation strategies. A comprehensive SSC implementation strategy in developing countries demonstrated improved outcomes in high-risk surgeries. Narrative synthesis suggests that meaningful compliance is inconsistently measured and rarely achieved. Strategies involving feedback improved compliance. Stakeholder-developed implementation strategies, including team-based education, achieved greater acceptance. Three studies suggest that parental involvement in the SSC is valued by parents, nurses and physicians and may improve patient safety.ConclusionsA SSC implementation strategy focused on paediatric patients and their families can achieve high acceptability and good compliance. SSCs’ role in improving measures of paediatric surgical outcome is not well established, but they may be effective when used within a comprehensive implementation strategy especially for high-risk patients in low-resource settings.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hae-Ra Han ◽  
Kelly T Gleason ◽  
Chun-An Sun ◽  
Hailey N Miller ◽  
Soo Jin Kang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND With the advent of electronic health record (EHR) systems, there is increasing attention on the EHR system with regard to its use in facilitating patients to play active roles in their care via secure patient portals. However, there is no systematic review to comprehensively address patient portal interventions and patient outcomes. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to synthesize evidence with regard to the characteristics and psychobehavioral and clinical outcomes of patient portal interventions. METHODS In November 2018, we conducted searches in 3 electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and a total of 24 articles met the eligibility criteria. RESULTS All but 3 studies were conducted in the United States. The types of study designs varied, and samples predominantly involved non-Hispanic white and highly educated patients with sizes ranging from 50 to 22,703. Most of the portal interventions used tailored alerts or educational resources tailored to the patient’s condition. Patient portal interventions lead to improvements in a wide range of psychobehavioral outcomes, such as health knowledge, self-efficacy, decision making, medication adherence, and preventive service use. Effects of patient portal interventions on clinical outcomes including blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and weight loss were mixed. CONCLUSIONS Patient portal interventions were overall effective in improving a few psychological outcomes, medication adherence, and preventive service use. There was insufficient evidence to support the use of patient portals to improve clinical outcomes. Understanding the role of patient portals as an effective intervention strategy is an essential step to encourage patients to be actively engaged in their health care.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e034300
Author(s):  
Nathalie Baungaard ◽  
Pia Skovvang ◽  
Elisabeth Assing Hvidt ◽  
Helle Gerbild ◽  
Merethe Kirstine Andersen ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe term defensive medicine, referring to actions motivated primarily by litigious concerns, originates from the USA and has been used in medical research literature since the late 1960s. Differences in medical legal systems between the US and most European countries with no tort legislation raise the question whether the US definition of defensive medicine holds true in Europe.AimTo present the protocol of a systematic review investigating variations in definitions and understandings of the term ‘defensive medicine’ in European research articles.Methods and analysisIn concordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, a systematic review of all medical research literature that investigate defensive medicine will be performed by two independent reviewers. The databases PubMed, Embase and Cochrane will be systematically searched on the basis of predetermined criteria. Data from all included European studies will systematically be extracted including the studies’ definitions and understandings of defensive medicine, especially the motives for doing medical actions that the study regards as ‘defensive’.Ethics and disseminationNo ethics clearance is required as no primary data will be collected. The results of the systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed, international journal.PROSPERO registration numberThis review has been submitted to International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) and is awaiting registration.


10.2196/14975 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. e14975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abrar Alturkistani ◽  
Geva Greenfield ◽  
Felix Greaves ◽  
Shirin Aliabadi ◽  
Rosemary H Jenkins ◽  
...  

Background Patient portals are digital health tools adopted by health care organizations. The portals are generally connected to the electronic health record of the health care organization and offer patients functionalities such as access to the medical record, ability to order repeat prescriptions, make appointments, or message the health care provider. Patient portals may be beneficial for both patients and the health care system. Patient portals can widely differ from one context to another due to the differences in the portal functionalities and capabilities and it is anticipated that outcomes associated with the functionalities also differ. Current systematic reviews report outcomes associated with patient portal uptake but do not explicitly specify the patient portal functionalities. Objective The aim of this systematic review is to synthesize the evidence on health and health care quality outcomes associated with patient portal use among adult (18 years or older) patients. The review research questions are as follows: What kind of health outcomes do tethered patient portals and patient portal functionalities contribute to in adult patients (18 years or older)? and What kind of health care quality outcomes, including health care utilization outcomes, do tethered patient portals and patient portal functionalities contribute to in adult patients (18 years or older)? Methods The systematic review will be conducted by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Scopus databases for relevant literature. The review inclusion criteria will be studies about adult patients (18 years or older), studies only about tethered patient portals, and studies with or without a comparator. We will report patient portal–associated health and health care quality outcomes based on the patient portal functionalities. All quantitative primary study types will be included. Risk of bias of included studies will be assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized trials and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s quality assessment tools. Data will be synthesized using narrative synthesis and will be reported according to the patient portal functionalities, country, disease, and health care system model. Results Searches will be conducted in September 2019, and the review is anticipated to be completed by the end of June 2020. Conclusions This systematic review will provide an overview of health and health care quality outcomes associated with patient portal use among adult patients, providing detailed information about the functionalities of the portals and their associations with the outcomes. The review could potentially help patient portal evaluation studies by providing insights into outcomes associated with the different functionalities of patient portals. Trial Registration International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) CRD42019141131; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=141131 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/14975


2021 ◽  
pp. jim-2021-001846
Author(s):  
Danny Juan Avalos ◽  
Jinendra Satiya ◽  
Alberto Contreras ◽  
Shivani Trivedi ◽  
Luis Alvarado ◽  
...  

Latin America has experienced a rise in the prevalence and incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Differences in IBD phenotype between Hispanics in Latin America and those in the USA have not been described. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis of population-based and cohort studies comparing the phenotype of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) in Latin Americans and US Hispanics. A systematic search was conducted up to March 2019 using MEDLINE, EMBASE and Google Scholar. Inclusion criterion includes studies describing IBD phenotype in Latin Americans or in US Hispanics. Exclusion criterion includes prevalence or incidence studies not describing phenotype. A random effects model was chosen “a priori” for analysis of pooled proportions. A total of 46 studies were included from Latin America and 7 studies from the USA. The predominant IBD subtype in Latin America was UC with a more balanced UC:CD ratio noted in Puerto Rico (0.53) and Brazil (0.56). UC-related extensive colitis was more common in US Hispanics (0.64) than in Latin Americans (0.38), p<0.001. CD phenotype was similar between US Hispanics and Latin Americans. UC is the predominant IBD subtype in Latin America, with the exception of Puerto Rico and Brazil which demonstrate a more balanced UC:CD ratio. In UC, extensive colitis was more frequently seen in US Hispanics than in Latin Americans. CD phenotype was similar in both US Hispanics and Latin Americans.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abrar Alturkistani ◽  
Geva Greenfield ◽  
Felix Greaves ◽  
Shirin Aliabadi ◽  
Rosemary H Jenkins ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Patient portals are digital health tools adopted by health care organizations. The portals are generally connected to the electronic health record of the health care organization and offer patients functionalities such as access to the medical record, ability to order repeat prescriptions, make appointments, or message the health care provider. Patient portals may be beneficial for both patients and the health care system. Patient portals can widely differ from one context to another due to the differences in the portal functionalities and capabilities and it is anticipated that outcomes associated with the functionalities also differ. Current systematic reviews report outcomes associated with patient portal uptake but do not explicitly specify the patient portal functionalities. OBJECTIVE The aim of this systematic review is to synthesize the evidence on health and health care quality outcomes associated with patient portal use among adult (18 years or older) patients. The review research questions are as follows: What kind of health outcomes do tethered patient portals and patient portal functionalities contribute to in adult patients (18 years or older)? and What kind of health care quality outcomes, including health care utilization outcomes, do tethered patient portals and patient portal functionalities contribute to in adult patients (18 years or older)? METHODS The systematic review will be conducted by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Scopus databases for relevant literature. The review inclusion criteria will be studies about adult patients (18 years or older), studies only about tethered patient portals, and studies with or without a comparator. We will report patient portal–associated health and health care quality outcomes based on the patient portal functionalities. All quantitative primary study types will be included. Risk of bias of included studies will be assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized trials and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s quality assessment tools. Data will be synthesized using narrative synthesis and will be reported according to the patient portal functionalities, country, disease, and health care system model. RESULTS Searches will be conducted in September 2019, and the review is anticipated to be completed by the end of June 2020. CONCLUSIONS This systematic review will provide an overview of health and health care quality outcomes associated with patient portal use among adult patients, providing detailed information about the functionalities of the portals and their associations with the outcomes. The review could potentially help patient portal evaluation studies by providing insights into outcomes associated with the different functionalities of patient portals. CLINICALTRIAL International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) CRD42019141131; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=141131 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT PRR1-10.2196/14975


Author(s):  
Kalinda E. Griffiths ◽  
Jessica Blain ◽  
Claire M. Vajdic ◽  
Louisa Jorm

There is increasing potential to improve the research and reporting on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples through the collection and (re)use of population-level data. As the data economy grows and the value of data increases, the optimization of data pertaining to Indigenous peoples requires governance that defines who makes decisions on behalf of whom and how these data can and should be used. An international a priori PROSPERO (#CRD42020170033) systematic review was undertaken to examine the health research literature to (1) identify, describe, and synthesize definitions and principles; (2) identify and describe data governance frameworks; and (3) identify, describe, and synthesize processes, policies and practices used in Indigenous Data Governance (ID-GOV). Sixty-eight articles were included in the review that found five components that require consideration in the governance of health research data pertaining to Indigenous people. This included (1) Indigenous governance; (2) institutional ethics; (3) socio-political dynamics; (4) data management and data stewardship; and (5) overarching influences. This review provides the first systematic international review of ID-GOV that could potentially be used in a range of governance strategies moving forward in health research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 960-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kea Turner ◽  
Young-Rock Hong ◽  
Sandhya Yadav ◽  
Jinhai Huo ◽  
Arch G Mainous

Abstract Objective Patient portal functionalities, such as patient–physician e-communication, can benefit patients by improving clinical outcomes. Utilization has historically been low but may have increased in recent years due to the implementation of Stage 2 Meaningful Use for electronic health records. This study has 2 objectives: 1) to compare patient portal utilization rates before Stage 2 (2011–2013) and after Stage 2 (2014–2017), and 2) to examine whether disparities in patient portal utilization attenuate after Stage 2. Materials and Methods We conducted an observational study using a pooled cross-sectional analysis of 2011–2017 National Health Interview Survey data (n = 254 183). Results The mean percent use of patient portals significantly increased from the pre-Stage 2 to the post-Stage 2 period (6.9%, 95% CI, 6.2–7.5; P &lt; .001). Non-Hispanic Black individuals (OR 0.81, 95% CI, 0.76–0.86; P &lt; .0001) and Hispanic individuals (OR 0.79, 95% CI, 0.74–0.84; P &lt; .0001) have lower odds of using patient portals compared to non-Hispanic White individuals. Although we found independent effects of race/ethnicity, we did not find a statistically significant interaction between race/ethnicity and time. We found a similar level of increase in patient portal utilization from the pre- to postperiod across racial and ethnic groups. Discussion Health care policies such as Stage 2 Meaningful Use are likely contributing to increased patient portal utilization across all patients and helping to attenuate disparities in utilization between subgroups of patients. Conclusion Further research is needed to explore which patient portal functionalities are perceived as most beneficial to patients and whether patients have access to those functionalities.


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