title: Patient portals and personal health information online: perception, access, and use by US adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Access to online patient portals is key to improving care, but we have limited understanding of patient perceptions of online portals and the characteristics of people who use them.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a national survey of 3677 respondents, we describe perceptions and utilization of online personal health information (PHI) portals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most respondents (92%) considered online PHI access important, yet only 34% were offered access to online PHI by a health care provider, and just 28% accessed online PHI in the past year. While there were no differences across race or ethnicity in importance of access, black and Hispanic respondents were significantly less likely to be offered access ( P  = .006 and <.001, respectively) and less likely to access their online PHI ( P  = .041 and <.001, respectively) compared to white and non-Hispanic respondents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health care providers are crucial to the adoption and use of online patient portals and should be encouraged to offer consistent access regardless of patient race and ethnicity.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peacock
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Ashok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.|College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Suzanne G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Leveille
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Medicine Information Technology Services, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Natalia V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Oster
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Joann G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Elmore
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001292:Attitude to Computers / Q000208:ethnology; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D003142:Communication; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033283:Patient Access to Records; D000072638:Patient Portals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: digital divide; electronic medical records; patient-physician communication; personal health information