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Association between Patient Portal use and Office Visits

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Abstract

Extant research on the relationship between portal use and office visits is mixed. Some researchers have stated that there is no correlation between the two events, others have found a positive correlation, and still others have found a negative correlation between portal use and office visits. Through the use of system-generated data from two different portal systems, we demonstrate the correlation between portal visits and office visits. We also demonstrate how this correlation differs between two institutions and across three demographic attributes. We performed a retrospective bivariate correlation analysis between portal visits and office visits. The correlation analysis was followed by an application of Fisher’s z transformation of the correlation coefficients to determine significant differences in correlation across ethnicity, gender, and age. We found a positive and statistically significant correlation between portal visits and office visits among both hospital patients (n = 2,594, r = .239, p < .000) and university health service patients (n = 1,233, r = .596, p < .000). This correlation varies significantly across the dimensions of ethnicity, gender, and age. Our findings support the importance of portal use in the care continuum. Future research should aim to better understand the nuance of personal characteristics on the relationship between portal visits and office visits. Knowing these nuances can assist practitioners with further promoting patient self-engagement through portal use.

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Data Availability

The data for this study was provided under a confidentiality agreement with the two participating institutions and is not publicly available.

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Acknowledgements

This paper was inspired by the work of previous researchers who attempted to explain the relationship between portal and office visits. We also would like to thank the editorial team and reviewers of Journal of Medical Systems for reviewing our work and considering it for publication. Finally, we express our gratitude to the representatives of the community hospital and the student health service who provided the data that made this paper possible.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina At Charlotte, 9201 University City, Blvd., Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA

    Reginald A. Silver, Chandrasekar Subramaniam & Antonis Stylianou

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  1. Reginald A. Silver
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  2. Chandrasekar Subramaniam
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Each of the authors equally participated in the development of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Reginald A. Silver.

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Silver, R.A., Subramaniam, C. & Stylianou, A. Association between Patient Portal use and Office Visits. J Med Syst 45, 74 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-021-01749-0

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