Striving for equity in patient portal usage stands as a pivotal step in achieving overall digital health parity. Experts emphasize the imperative of ‘techquity’—equitable technology access—in healthcare. This entails assessing portal adoption across demographics, addressing disparities, and ensuring inclusive access. While patient portals initially empowered patients with health data, they’ve evolved into integral healthcare tools. Discrepancies persist among user demographics, highlighting the urgency to close these gaps. Achieving ‘techquity’ demands proactive measures, inclusive provider engagement, and continual assessment to eliminate barriers and enhance access to equitable digital healthcare.
Advancing digital health equity hinges upon achieving ‘techquity’ in patient portal adoption. The evolution of patient portals from data access tools to essential healthcare facilitators underscores their significance. However, disparities in usage among diverse demographics pose critical challenges. Barriers such as limited access, language disparities, and digital literacy disproportionately affect marginalized groups. This paper elucidates strategies to close these gaps by measuring portal adoption, fostering provider inclusivity, and addressing access obstacles. Embracing ‘techquity’ is pivotal for ensuring comprehensive and equitable access to digital healthcare services.
Taking the crucial step towards digital health equity begins with measuring the use of patient portals across various demographics. A consortium of health IT experts emphasizes the importance of attaining what they term “techquity” in patient portal adoption, highlighting its pivotal role in achieving overall digital health equity.
In an editorial featured in JAMA Health Forum, experts hailing from the University of Pennsylvania, Northwell Health, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center delineate essential strategies for realizing digital health equity. These strategies encompass gauging patient portal adoption and usage across demographic segments, as well as delving into the obstacles hindering widespread patient portal utilization.
Although the patient portal has existed for a considerable time, initially introduced alongside Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and encouraged through federal initiatives like meaningful use and the 21st Century Cures Act, its purpose has evolved. Originally designed to grant patients access to their health data and empower their involvement in healthcare decisions, the portal has transformed into a multifaceted tool integral to fundamental healthcare services.
Beyond merely providing access to health data, patient portals now facilitate appointment scheduling, bill payments, prescription refills, secure messaging, and document uploads. Notably, studies link increased portal use to improved patient-reported outcomes and enhanced individual health awareness.
However, usage of patient portals varies significantly across demographics. The predominant users are middle-aged, affluent, educated, English-speaking, and predominantly White women. Barriers such as limited digital health literacy, inadequate access to technology, language barriers, low trust, and personal preferences disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic patients, as well as those with limited English proficiency.
This discrepancy in access to patient portals exacerbates healthcare disparities among marginalized communities, necessitating urgent action to ensure equitable access.
Addressing these disparities is integral to healthcare’s broader objective of narrowing demographic-based health gaps. To accomplish this, organizations must comprehensively evaluate the current state of patient portal adoption, analyzing access and usage across different racial and ethnic groups.
Providers play a crucial role in ensuring equitable access by proactively offering portal access to all patients, irrespective of assumptions about their willingness to use the technology. Educating patients about the significance of portal access and assisting in downloading and effectively utilizing the tool are pivotal steps.
Recognizing and mitigating potential barriers to portal use, such as language translations and digital health literacy support, is equally important. Moreover, continuous evaluation and adaptation of strategies to eliminate digital health inequities and improve access to virtual care via patient portals are vital to achieving “techquity.”
Overall, striving for ‘techquity’ in patient portal adoption is vital for advancing digital health equity. Bridging demographic disparities requires proactive measures, inclusive provider engagement, and continuous assessment. Achieving equitable access necessitates addressing barriers and enhancing inclusivity in healthcare technology. The evolution of patient portals into fundamental healthcare tools accentuates their role in narrowing healthcare disparities. Sustained efforts in fostering ‘techquity’ promise improved access and healthcare outcomes for diverse populations, marking a crucial stride towards comprehensive digital health equity.
