Barriers and facilitators of electronic patient portal uptake for asthma management

Abstract

Objective

An active patient-practitioner partnership is a key aspect of asthma management and patient-reported data helps with shared decision making. Technological advances such as the electronic patient portal can facilitate partnership, with the goal of improved asthma outcomes. However, uptake of portals by end-users for asthma management has been low. We studied portal-based asthma interventions to understand barriers and facilitators to its use.

Data Sources

We searched within the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar databases.

Study Selections

We used the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews to guide our analysis of studies related to asthma and patient portals. We summarized relevant studies in terms of barriers and facilitators as well as study characteristics.

Results

Sixteen studies were included in our final analysis. Common barriers to patient portal use for asthma management were lack of perceived value by the end-user, low end-user technological literacy, and limited resources. Facilitators of portal use included ease of use, personalization, and adequate technical support. Patient portals in these studies were used for a variety of applications related to core asthma management concepts of assessment and monitoring, education for a partnership in asthma care, environmental factors, co-morbidities, and medications.

Conclusions

Patient portal use for asthma management can be encouraged by ensuring the portal is easy to access and navigate, demonstrates values, as well as has readily available technical support. Involving end-users closely in the design process and implementation may help address barriers. Special attention is needed for groups with technological resource limitations.

Keywords:

• Pediatrics
• control/management
• education

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health under grant 1K23HL148502-01A1.