Toward Normalizing Inclusive Design by Uncovering Patient Experiences of a Web Portal in a Dental Hospital: Mixed...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Patient portals offer potential benefits for healthcare delivery and resource management.
• Barriers to patient portal adoption can limit expected advantages, particularly for older adults (≥65 years) and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the usability and overall patient experience of a patient portal.
• To specifically evaluate the portal's performance among CALD and older adult users.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach was employed at a dental hospital.
• Included pre- and post-implementation patient experience surveys, semistructured interviews, usability surveys, and scenario-based usability evaluations.

Main Results:

• The patient portal did not significantly impact the ease of changing appointments compared to non-portal clinics.
• While younger adults found the portal easy to use, older adults and CALD individuals faced usability issues due to design limitations and inadequate inclusivity.
• Overall usability scores were lower for older adults, and barriers included poor design, limited awareness, and difficulties with specific functions like messaging.

Conclusions:

• Inclusive design principles are essential for patient portal development to ensure equitable engagement for all users.
• Normalizing inclusive designs in patient portals is vital to prevent the marginalization of priority populations like older and CALD individuals.
• Recommendations are provided for future patient portal design and implementation strategies.