Digital engagement and the efficacy of patient portal-based preventive care interventions

Many adults are overdue for important screenings and vaccines, but providers have limited resources to address these care gaps. Electronic messaging, including patient portal messaging, can be an effective intervention to increase screening and vaccine adherence. However, there is limited research examining variables influencing intervention efficacy beyond demographic variables.

This study aims to identify whether patient portal engagement and primary care visits affect the efficacy of patient portal-based screening or vaccine reminders.

A retrospective analysis of electronic medical record data was used to evaluate the completion of screening mammograms, influenza vaccinations, and fecal immunochemical test (FIT) screenings for approximately 400,000 MyChart patient portal users at a large integrated health system. A logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate odds ratios associated with intervention completion.

When adjusted for age, race, and sex, MyChart engagement is associated with increased odds of completing patient portal interventions for mammograms, flu vaccines, and FIT screenings. When adjusted for age, race, and sex, primary care visits are associated with increased odds of completing flu vaccines and FIT screenings but not mammograms following a patient portal intervention.

Overall patient portal engagement is critical to portal-based preventive health interventions. These interventions are most successful when combined with office-based interventions, but there is a potential in some scenarios that digital interventions can be successful without office-based interventions. This research contributes to the existing literature around screening adherence and patient portals' impact on health outcomes.