Analysis calls for more research on patient portal development
Researchers identified five main problem categories and key factors contributing to these problems in a review of literature about patient portals.
Published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, lead author Terese Otte-Trojel, of Erasmus University Rotterdam, and colleagues in both the Netherlands and at the University of California, Berkeley, named the following problem categories featured in current literature:
- Achieving patient engagement
- Provider engagement
- Appropriate data governance
- Security and interoperability
- Sustainable business model
About half (45) of the 109 articles proposed solutions, fewer than half of these solutions (18) were implemented, and even fewer (5) were evaluated to generate learning about their effects.
The authors offered recommendations for advancement of the evidence base: “Future research should build on existing evidence, draw on principles from design sciences conveyed in the problem-solving cycle, and seek to produce evidence within various different organizational contexts,” Otte-Trojel and colleagues concluded.
Access the complete study.
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.