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Summary Background: Patient portal adoption has increased over the last two decades. Most research about patient portals has focused on adult populations in the primary care and medical specialty settings. Objective: We describe initial and long-term portal use by pediatric patients and their caregivers in a broadly deployed patient portal at an academic medical center. Methods: We analyzed portal usage for pediatric patients and their caregivers from 2008 to 2014. We recorded usage events with time stamps; user role defined as self, surrogate (i.e., parent or guardian), or delegate; and functions accessed. Usage events were grouped into sessions to calculate descriptive statistics by patient age, user role, and active use over time. Results: From 2008 to 2014, the number of portal accounts increased from 633 to 17,128. 15.9% of pediatric patients had their own account; 93.6%, a surrogate account; and 2.2% a delegate account. During the study period, 15,711 unique users initiated 493,753 sessions and accessed 1,491,237 functions. Most commonly used functions were secure messaging (accessed in 309,204 sessions; 62.6%); test results (174,239; 35.3%) and appointments (104,830; 21.2%). Function usage was greatest for patients ages 0-2 years (136,245 functions accessed; 23.1%) and 15-17 years (109,241;18.5%). Surrogate users conducted 83.2% of logins for adolescent patients. Portal accounts were actively used for < 1 year for 9,551 patients (55.8%), 1-2 years for 2,826 patients (16.5%), 2–3 years for 1,968 patients (11.5%) and over 3 years for 2,783 patients (16.3%). Conclusion: Pediatric patients and caregivers have avidly used messaging, test result, and appointment functions. The majority of access was done by surrogates. Adolescent portal usage increased with age. Most accounts for pediatric patients were only used actively for a few years, with peak usage for patients in early childhood and late adolescence.Citation: Steitz BD, Cronin RM, Davis SE, Yan Z, Jackson GP. Long-term Patterns of Patient Portal Use for Pediatric Patients at an Academic Medical Center. Appl Clin Inform 2017; 8: 779–793 https://doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2017-01-RA-0005

Background Viral suppression (VS) among people living with HIV (PLWH), the goal of the HIV care continuum, leads to improved patient outcomes and decreased HIV transmission. Patient portals are online tools that enable patient interaction with healthcare systems and may increase patient engagement and improve health outcomes. We examined whether portal access was associated with VS among PLWH. Methods We conducted an observational cohort study among PLWH aged ≥18 years who had ≥1 HIV healthcare provider visit at the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic (Nashville, Tennessee) from January 1, 2011–December 31, 2015. Patient portal access was defined as being registered for a portal account at any point in the year prior. VS was defined as having ≥1 viral load (VL) measured and the last VL ≤200 copies/ml within a given year. The adjusted relative risk (aRR) of VS was estimated with modified Poisson regression and robust standard errors for multiple outcomes per individual. Models were adjusted for all covariates in the Figure and for year since first kept appointment. Missing data were multiply imputed. Results The study population included 4,237 PLWH; median age was 43 years (IQR 33–50), 78% were male, 41% were black, and 60% reported male–male sexual contact (MSM). Of the 57% who had portal access during the study period, median age was 42 years (IQR 31–49), 86% were male, 30% were black, and 75% were MSM. In adjusted analysis, portal access was independently associated with improved VS (aRR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.16–1.21 vs. no portal access) (Figure). Increasing age and sexual contact (vs. injection drug use) remained associated with improved VS; black race (vs. white race), lower socioeconomic status, and higher baseline VL remained associated with poor VS after accounting for portal access (Figure). Conclusion Portal access was independently associated with improved VS, although sociodemographic disparities in VS persisted. Additionally, there were sociodemographic disparities in patient portal access. There may be important unmeasured confounders such as health literacy and educational attainment. Additional prospective studies are needed to determine whether patient portal access leads to improved VS among PLWH. Disclosures P. Rebeiro, NIH: Grant Investigator, Research grant; G. Jackson, Vanderbilt Center for Effective Health Communication: Grant Investigator, Research grant; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Grant Investigator, Research grant; American Medical Informatics Association: Board Member, Research support; A. Pettit, NIH/NIAID - K08AI104352: Grant Investigator, Research grant