Evidence mapPaperPMID 37611795Full record

ReviewApplied clinical informatics2023

The State-of-the-Art of Patient Portals: Adapting to External Factors, Addressing Barriers, and Innovating.

Tera L Reynolds, Jared Guthrie Cobb, Bryan D Steitz, Jessica S Ancker, S Trent Rosenbloom

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Applied clinical informatics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. More Older Adults Try Patient Portals in Recent Years, but Many Don't Continue: A Meta-Analysis.Extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. CHI Conference · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Outpatient Portal Use and Blood Pressure Management during Pregnancy.AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science · 2025
    Article
  12. Review
  13. Centering Health Equity in an Increasingly Digital Environment.Perspectives in biology and medicine · 2025
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Tera L ReynoldsDepartment of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
Jared Guthrie CobbVanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
Bryan D SteitzDepartment of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
Jessica S AnckerDepartment of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
S Trent RosenbloomVanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

objectiveRecent external factors-the 21st Century Cures Act and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-have stimulated major changes in the patient portal landscape. The objective of this state-of-the-art review is to describe recent developments in the patient portal literature and to identify recommendations and future directions for the design, implementation, and evaluation of portals.

methodsTo focus this review on salient contemporary issues, we elected to center it on four topics: (1) 21st Century Cures Act's impact on patient portals (e.g., Open Notes); (2) COVID-19's pandemic impact on portals; (3) proxy access to portals; and (4) disparities in portal adoption and use. We conducted targeted PubMed searches to identify recent empirical studies addressing these topics, used a two-part screening process to determine relevance, and conducted thematic analyses.

resultsOur search identified 174 unique papers, 74 were relevant empirical studies and included in this review. Among these papers, we identified 10 themes within our four a priori topics, including preparing for and understanding the consequences of increased patient access to their electronic health information (Cures Act); developing, deploying, and evaluating new virtual care processes (COVID-19); understanding current barriers to formal proxy use (proxy access); and addressing disparities in portal adoption and use (disparities).

conclusionOur results suggest that the recent trends toward understanding the implications of immediate access to most test results, exploring ways to close gaps in portal adoption and use among different sub-populations, and finding ways to leverage portals to improve health and health care are the next steps in the maturation of patient portals and are key areas that require more research. It is important that health care organizations share their innovative portal efforts, so that successful measures can be tested in other contexts, and progress can continue.

Indexed as

COVID-19Patient PortalsElectronicsHealth FacilitiesHumansPandemics

Identifiers

PMID37611795
PMCPMC10446914

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.