Older Adults' Use of Patient Portals for Health Communication (1 CE)

Number of Credits: 1

This course is for:  Clinical Psychologists, Counselors, and Nurses

Course By: Tim Grigsby, PhD

Content By: Sakaguchi-Tang, D. K., Bosold, A. L., Choi, Y. K., & Turner, A. M. (2017). Patient portal use and experience among older adults: Systematic review. JMIR Medical Informatics, 5(4), e38.

Course Description: Patient portals and electronic personal health records (ePHRs) are technologies that can improve health communication between providers and patients. These technologies can be especially useful for populations with high health care needs, such as older adults. Identifying the barriers and facilitators to using patient portals and ePHRs in older adult populations can inform future system development, system improvement, and regular use by older adult patients. The use of these technologies by older adults should be anticipated and considered in the design process to overcome existing barriers and improve the experiences of this population.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the potential role of technology in supporting older adult health
2. Compare and contrast patient portals to electronic patient health records (ePHRs)
3. Identify the 2 main barriers and 2 main facilitators of patient portal use by older adults

Course Outline:

• Read and understand Patient portal use and experience among older adults: Systematic review
• Review the Course Description and Learning Objectives
• Reflect on the use of patient portals while considering the main facilitators and barriers to the use of this technology among older adults
• Work through the post-test questions; keep in mind that answer selections should be derived from the respective article
• Return to the referenced article for any missed questions and/or to better understand older adults’ experiences with patient portals

Implicit biases incorporate an association that occurs outside of conscious awareness that may

resultantly lead to a negative patient evaluation derived from irrelevant characteristics; i.e.

gender and/or race. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Thirty-five studies

identified the existence of implicit bias in healthcare professionals; all correlational studies

evidenced a significant positive relationship between implicit bias levels and lower quality of

care (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017). Continued research in health care settings, combined with

greater method homogeneity, should be employed to examine the occurrence and prevalence

of implicit biases in healthcare settings as a strategic approach for mitigating related disparities

(FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017).

Reference

FitzGerald, C., & Hurst, S. (2017). Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: A systematic

review. BMC Med Ethics 18, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-017-0179-

Approvals: