The local and global health equity communities are buzzing over a new research report published in JAMA, finding that although access to online health records and portals rose during and since the Covid-19 pandemic, fewer Black and Hispanic individuals have been using such portals than their White patient counterparts.
With over 22,000 participants in the research study, it was notable that providers were reported to have a very important role in enabling greater access to e-health information and patient portals. A nearly 25% jump was seen in the number of patients who noted that they were offered portal access by their providers between 2020 and 2022. Moreover, while only a 5% increase was seen in the share of people who accessed their patient portals between 2019 and 2020, a 46% jump was exhibited between 2020 and 2022, highlighting the significance of the shift during the global pandemic.
Notwithstanding those encouraging results relating to provider encouragement of patient portal use, as well as the climb in overall actual use of e-health systems and information among patients during the Covid-19 period, such use by Black and Hispanic patients was roughly 10%-15% lower than that of their White counterparts. Having said that, the research found that the nature and type of usage of health portals among different groups was not materially different and, therefore, health equity proponents contend that educational efforts and outreach initiatives encouraging use for minority or historically marginalized populations could drive a meaningful rise in patient use going forward.
The incidence of health inequities in this area has been high, in part due to the lack of opportunity to access portals among many underrepresented populations, including because such patients might not have been offered credentials, cared for by providers who otherwise would have encouraged access, or understood how to use health IT given language or health literacy barriers. However, this and other research suggest that the overall advancement of health equity, greater health care access for patients in historically underserved areas, and increased provider education and encouragement of portal use for minority populations all have the potential to decrease the currently reported gap in portal and e-health use. Greater education and visibility relating to e-health access should also become components of health policy in the months and years ahead to further enhance health equity.
