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Care Delivered by Pediatric Surgical Specialties Through Patient Portal Messaging

Katherine M Riera1, Jamie R Robinson2, Kyle J Van Arendonk1

  • 1Department of Pediatric Surgery, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee.

The Journal of Surgical Research
|December 12, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Patient portals facilitate communication between pediatric surgical patients and providers, with most messages concerning medical care, appointments, and scheduling. Further study is needed to understand provider workload and access disparities.

Area of Science:

  • Health Informatics
  • Pediatric Surgery
  • Digital Health Communication

Background:

  • Patient portals offer secure online communication between patients and healthcare providers.
  • The utilization and content of patient portal messages in pediatric surgical specialties remain understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze the use and content of patient portal messages within pediatric surgical specialties.
  • To understand communication patterns between pediatric patients/caregivers and surgical providers via patient portals.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of patient portal message threads from June 1, 2014, to December 31, 2014.
  • Collected patient demographics, provider specialties, and message content using a validated consumer health taxonomy.

Main Results:

  • Most messages involved male, white, non-Hispanic patients, with younger patients generating more frequent messages.
  • Otolaryngology received the highest volume of messages; cardiac surgery and dermatology had the most messages per thread.
  • Primary message topics included appointments/scheduling, medical problems, treatments, testing, and referrals.

Conclusions:

  • Pediatric surgeons actively engage in patient care through portal messaging.
  • Healthcare institutions should evaluate the impact of patient portals on provider workload and potential access disparities.
Abstract

Keywords:
Consumer health informaticsHealth information technologyPatient portalPediatric surgerySecure messaging

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