NCT Number: NCT03354000
Online patient portals are becoming ubiquitous in the US. Previous research has documented substantial usability barriers, especially among patients with limited health literacy. This pilot randomized pilot trial had the goal of determining the effectiveness of an in-person training with a scalable online video-based training program to increase portal use among patients in a safety net healthcare setting.
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Notify Me18 year–100 year
All sexes
Interventional
Not applicable
The intervention in this study was a patient portal training curriculum with simple instructions and 11 how-to videos for accessing features of an online patient portal. Using a deeply participatory approach, this curriculum was created in consultation with a patient advisory board from the San Francisco Health Network, a local Medicaid health plan. From June until October 2016, 93 patients with 1 or more chronic diseases were randomized to receive either: 1) an in-person tutorial with a trained research assistant versus 2) a link to view the videos on their own. The primary outcome was portal log-in (yes/no) between 3 and 6 months post-training, assessed through a portal administrative dashboard within the EHR. Secondary outcome included baseline and follow-up survey measures on participants' perceptions of the portal use and their care, as well as views of the web-based lessons.
Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes
Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
We randomized patients to receive a link to access the online tutorial on their own. Participants in the take-home arm were given a paper handout with a link to the training materials and an outline of the steps for accessing the training curriculum.
For participants randomized to the in-person training arm, a trained research assistant prompted participants to log into the learning platform and guided them in accessing the training materials for portal features that were of interest to them. The staff member provided further explanation or clarification if participants had questions about the training material.
Time frame: 3-6 months post-training
Logging into the portal website in the 3-6 months post-training (yes/no)
Time frame: 3-6 months post-training
The eHEALS is a measure of eHealth literacy developed to measure consumers' combined knowledge, comfort, and perceived skills at finding, evaluating, and applying electronic health information to health problems. eHEALS was measured at baseline and follow-up via surveys
Time frame: 3-6 months post-training
Initiating sign-up process for the portal website (yes/no), as pulled from EHR chart review
Time frame: 3-6 months post-training
Confidence in having skills to be able to use online portal website (scored from 1 to 0), as self-reported via baseline and follow-up surveys
University of California, San Francisco
Other
Engaging Diverse Patients in Using an Online Patient Portal
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