Digital health device owners are five times more likely to regularly use a patient portal to access personal health information than non-device owners, according to research from Parks Associates, which indicates that device ownership can be a driver for online engagement.
The research found that 27 percent of device owners regularly use a patient portal versus only 5 percent of non-owners.
“Monthly usage of patient portals is increasing among U.S. broadband households, but 50 percent of U.S. broadband households do not regularly use these online health resources and 23 percent do not use health portals at all,” Harry Wang, Director, Health and Mobile Product Research, Parks Associate said in a statement. “Device ownership can be a driver for online engagement, and innovations with open or private APIs are enabling partners from different industries, such as device makers and patient portal developers to collaborate for new consumer health and wellness experiences.”
Patient portal use has increasingly become an important issue to healthcare providers attempting to meet Stage 2 meaningful use requirements, specifically the patient engagement requirement. Currently, the Patient Electronic Access measure of Stage 2 meaningful use requires that five percent of a provider’s patients use technology to electronically download, view and transmit their medical records. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a rule that would reduce the requirement from 5 percent of providers’ patients to just one single patient during an organization's reporting period.
