Engaging patients and clinicians through a wellness portal to improve the health of Oklahomans

Patient-centeredness is one of the key dimensions of the patient-centered medical home model, yet it is still not uniformly understood. A goal-directed care approach that incorporates active preparation and comprehensive patient visits has been suggested to empower patients and improve health outcomes by various resources, including patient-side health IT (e.g. portals). In the context of a recent randomized controlled trial funded by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality, we developed a patient Wellness Portal that was linked to a previously designed and implemented clinician-portal. A six-month pilot implementation study was followed by a 12-month randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of the Portal on patient and practice-level outcomes. Results indicate that the Wellness Portal was easy to use, well received by patients, helped users educate themselves about their conditions, gauge their health status, and create a longitudinal wellness plan for discussion during an annual wellness visit. A preliminary analysis also showed that a greater proportion of patients received preventive services in the Portal intervention group than in the control group.