Web Portal Use Research Articles

Designing Capacity-Building Supports to Promote Evidence-Based Programs in Community-Based Organizations Working with Underserved Populations.

It is critical to build capacity to use evidence-based health promotion programs in community-based organizations (CBOs), particularly those working with underserved populations. Packages of ongoing capacity-building supports seem to be critical, but it is not clear how best to design and deploy them. PLANET MassCONECT was a participatory research project to increase capacity for the use of evidence-based programs (EBPs) among CBO staff members in three Massachusetts communities experiencing health disparities. We assessed the impact of trainee engagement with capacity-building supports on the use of a systematic approach to program planning. Trainees were enrolled from 2010 to 2012 and engaged until 2014. The intervention started with a workshop and included ongoing capacity-building supports (a customized web portal and resources, networking events, minigrants, and technical assistance). Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between trainee engagement with capacity-building supports offered after the workshop and key outcomes at year 1. Of the capacity-building supports offered after the workshop, the web portal was the most popular. Higher use of systematic program planning approaches in the first year was predicted by web portal use (odds ratio [OR], 3.00; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-8.67; p = 0.04), and participation in the minigrant process (OR, 5.40; 95% CI, 1.09-28.69; p = 0.04). Separately, high intention to use systematic approaches for program planning was predicted by web portal use (OR, 3.47; 95% CI, 1.27-9.52; p = 0.02). Ongoing capacity-building supports may promote EBP planning in CBOs, but institutional constraints may limit practitioners' ability to engage with such supports.

Characteristics of older adults using patient web portals to view their DXA results

BackgroundSharing test results with patients via patient web portals is a new trend in healthcare. No research has been done examining patient web portal use with bone density test results. The objective of our study was to identify patient characteristics associated with the use of patient web portals to view their bone density test results.MethodsA secondary analysis of data from a pragmatic randomized controlled trial of 7749 participants ≥50 years old that had presented for a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) bone density test. Patients were interviewed at enrollment and 12 weeks later. Multivariable logistic regression identified patient characteristics that differentiated those who used the web portal from those who did not.ResultsOur sample included 4669 patients at the two (University of Iowa [UI], and Kaiser Permanente of Georgia [KPGA]) clinical sites that had patient web portals. Of these patients, 3399 (72.8%) reported knowing their test results 12 weeks post-DXA, with 649 (13.9%) reporting that they viewed their DXA results using the web portal. Web portal users were more likely to be from UI than KPGA, and were younger, more educated, had higher health literacy, had osteopenia, and had the same sex as their referring physician (all p < 0.05).ConclusionOnly 19.1% of the 3399 patients who knew their DXA results used the available patient web portals to find out about them. Web portal users differed from non-users on several characteristics. This suggests that simply making patient web portals available for use may not be sufficient to appreciably enhance patient awareness of their test results. Based on these findings, a better understanding of the reasons why older, less educated, and less activated patients do not access their test results through patient web portals is needed.

Use of a web portal by adult patients with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus seen in a family medicine outpatient clinic.

There has been increasing interest in the use of web portals by patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Studies of web portal use by patients with pre-diabetes have not been reported. To plan studies of web portal use by adult clinic patients seen for pre-diabetes and T2DM at an academic medical center, we examined characteristics of those who had or had not registered for a web portal. Electronic records were reviewed to identify web portal registration by patients treated for pre-diabetes or T2DM by age, sex, race and ethnicity. A total of 866 patients with pre-diabetes and 2,376 patients with T2DM were seen in a family medicine outpatient clinic. About 41.5% of patients with pre-diabetes and 34.7% of those with T2DM had registered for the web portal. In logistic regression analysis, web portal registration among patients with T2DM was significantly associated with age 41-45 years, and with Hispanic ethnicity. Similar results were obtained for pre-diabetes except that the positive association with age 41-45 years and inverse association with Hispanic ethnicity were not statistically significant. Among patients with pre-diabetes or T2DM, Black men and Black women were less likely to have registered than their white counterparts. Patients who were aged 18-25 and >65 years were less likely to have registered for the web portal than those 26-65 years. Additional research is needed to identify portal design features that improve health outcomes for patients with pre-diabetes and T2DM and interventions that will increase use of patient portals by pre-diabetic and diabetic patients, especially among Black patients and older patients.

A Review of Web Portal Use by Oncology Patients.

Background:Patient portals and other Internet-based technologies have been increasingly used to improve cancer care coordination. Patient portals may introduce special considerations in oncology populations where longitudinal outpatient care is often more intensive than in most other specialties.Methods:This article, which is based upon bibliographic searches in PubMed, reviews the literature on web portal use by cancer patients. Articles published in English from 2000 to August 2018 were identified using the following MeSH search terms and Boolean algebra commands: web portal AND cancer. Information obtained from bibliographic searches (title and topic of article, information in abstract, and keywords) was used to determine whether to retain each article identified in this way.Results:A total of 263 article citations were identified in the bibliographic searches. Of these, 10 met the eligibility criteria. A variety of study designs were used including focus groups, usability testing, in-person interviews, questionnaire surveys, retrospective cohort, and non-randomized trial. Cancer patients had reached modest levels of portal use. Increased portal use has been associated with younger age, white race, and higher socioeconomic status. Most cancer patients used portals to look up testing results and provide notes, but had difficulty in interpreting the results appropriately.Conclusions:Our study adds to the growing evidence that patient portals play a significant role in promoting self-management in cancer survivors. Additional studies are needed to determine factors influencing portal use, so effective interventions can be developed to enhance portal use.

A systematic review of studies of web portals for patients with diabetes mellitus.

Patient web portals are password-protected online websites that offer patients 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Due to advances in health information technologies, there has been increasing interest among providers and researchers in patient web portals for use by patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions. This article, which is based upon bibliographic searches in PubMed, reviews web portals for patients with diabetes mellitus including patient web portals tethered to electronic medical records and web portals developed specifically for patients with diabetes. Twelve studies of the impact of patient web portals on the management of diabetes patients were identified. Three had a cross-sectional design, 1 employed mixed-methods, one had a matched-control design, 3 had a retrospective cohort design, and 5 were randomized controlled trials. Six (50%) of the studies examined web portals tethered to electronic medical records and the remainder were web portals developed specifically for diabetes patients. The results of this review suggest that secure messaging between adult diabetic patients and their clinician is associated with improved glycemic control. However, results from observational studies indicate that many diabetic patients do not take advantage of web portal features such as secure messaging, perhaps because of a lack of internet access or lack of experience in navigating web portal resources. Although results from randomized controlled trials provide stronger evidence of the efficacy of web portal use in improving glycemic control among diabetic patients, the number of trials is small and results from the trials have been mixed. Studies suggest that secure messaging between adult diabetic patients and their clinician is associated with improved glycemic control, but negative findings have also been reported. The number of randomized controlled trials that have examined the efficacy of web portal use in improving glycemic control among diabetic patients is still small. Additional research is needed to identify specific portal features that may impact quality of care or improve glycemic control.

Understanding the motivation to use web portals

The purpose of this research was to study the motivation attributes of information products from the end-users’ perspective, and to measure the impact of these attributes on intention-to-use. In the context of Web portal use, the information product generally includes three types of services: personal services (e.g., email), information services (e.g., online news) and search services. The literature underscores the importance of motivational factors such as social escapism and privacy concerns on the intention to use. Drawing from this theoretical background, an initial set of motivation attributes has been identified, and an experimental study using 142 subjects as Web portal users has been conducted. As far as impact analyses are concerned, social escapism motivation, information motivation, interactive control motivation, and socialization were found to highly correlate to all of the three types of services and the combined use. Lessons learned from this study should also help IT professionals to design, develop and deploy more effective general web portals.

SP0037 Development and Evaluation of a Hospital-Based Webportal with Patient Access to Electronic Medical Records

ObjectiveUsing a user-centered approach, a hospital-based Web portal was developed which provides rheumatology patients with information and access to their electronic medical records (EMR). In this presentation the developmental phases...

University Web Portals As Information Management Tool: Technology Acceptance Dimension

This study of the use of university web portal as information management tool identified the respondents utilization and technology acceptance. The research aimed to: (1) to explore faculty members acceptance of university web portal as an information management tool in teaching and (2) identify the key intention determinants of UE web portal use. With the forty (40) faculty respondents coming from the six (6) randomly selected colleges of the University of the East, the findings revealed that they have positive attitude towards the use of the portal as information management tool because of its usefulness and ease of use. The analysis depicts the respondents full intention to continue using the university web portal. The result confirmed perceived usefulness (PU) as a determinant for behavioral intention to continue using the university web portal as information management tool.

Building Relationships with Portal Users

ABSTRACTMotivation for Web portal use is an important factor in the continued growth of e-commerce. Particularly for Web portals, motivation may be intertwined with various dimensions of a relationship that is cultivated between the portal and users. Specifically, the four motivation factors (feature, personalization, familiarity, and searching) are highly correlated to trust and satisfaction. Greater loyalty was found for AOL than for other portals, with no significant differences in relationship with Web users among the free Web portals such as Yahoo. Heavy web users and early adopters were more likely to use personalized Web portals and enjoy communicating with others through the Internet. Because a long relationship with Web portals is one motivation to use them, the highly correlated motivation factors found in this study are important to building strong relationships with Web users. These findings have implications for marketers and public relations practitioners.