Open AccessDescriptive examination of secure messaging in a longitudinal cohort of diabetes patients in the ECLIPPSE study
Author(s) -
Anupama Gunshekar Cemballi,
Andrew J. Karter,
Dean Schillinger,
Jennifer Y. Liu,
Danielle S. McNamara,
William Brown,
Scott A. Crossley,
Wagahta Semere,
Mary Reed,
Jill Y. Allen,
Courtney R. Lyles
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the american medical informatics association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.614
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1527-974X
pISSN - 1067-5027
DOI - 10.1093/jamia/ocaa281
Subject(s) - medicine , demographics , cohort , patient portal , workflow , health literacy , health care , family medicine , descriptive statistics , diabetes mellitus , computer science , demography , statistics , mathematics , database , endocrinology , sociology , economics , economic growth
The substantial expansion of secure messaging (SM) via the patient portal in the last decade suggests that it is becoming a standard of care, but few have examined SM use longitudinally. We examined SM patterns among a diverse cohort of patients with diabetes (N = 19 921) and the providers they exchanged messages with within a large, integrated health system over 10 years (2006-2015), linking patient demographics to SM use. We found a 10-fold increase in messaging volume. There were dramatic increases overall and for patient subgroups, with a majority of patients (including patients with lower income or with self-reported limited health literacy) messaging by 2015. Although more physicians than nurses and other providers messaged throughout the study, the distribution of health professions using SM changed over time. Given this rapid increase in SM, deeper understanding of optimizing the value of patient and provider engagement, while managing workflow and training challenges, is crucial.