Personalized Communication - People with Hearing Loss' Experiences of Using a National Patient Portal

Patient portals are used as a means to facilitate communication, performing administrative tasks, or accessing one's health record. A qualitative study was therefore performed to understand how people with hearing loss experience using the Swedish national patient portal 1177.se and the patient accessible electronic health record Journalen. Data was collected through focus groups and individual interviews. Ten persons with varying degree of hearing loss, age and years of using a hearing aid participated. The data was analyzed through thematic content analysis and three themes emerged; access to written information, patient-created information and personalized communication. Although the study is limited in size, we believe that important lessons can be learned regarding the needs for personalized communication, including access to written information.