# Designing for Demographics- Optimizing the Usability of Patient Portals

> **NIH AHRQ R03** · MEDSTAR HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 2020 · $35,438

## Abstract

Abstract
Patient portals potentially serve as a platform for patients to easily access their health information and more
easily communicate with their provider, if designed and developed appropriately for the user. When
patients use portals it also affords the opportunity to have their health information preserved over time. Despite
these benefits, the majority of the US population does not ever access or engage with patient portals. With the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology now mandating open application
programming interfaces (APIs), which will allow for the development of patient portals that can receive data
from any EHR vendor product, the effective design of portals for all users is now even more critical. Many
patient portals suffer from poor usability and do not provide patients with the information they need in an
intuitive format. Further, patient needs vary by demographics and health status. The objective of the proposed
research is to identify and characterize the factors differentiating patient portal users from non-users within five
population subgroups, and to develop clear design guidelines to represent their needs.
We will conduct a large cross-sectional survey of diverse patient portal users and non-users, by sampling from
novel crowd-sourcing platforms (for broad reach) and patients within a large diverse health system. We will apply
identified user preferences to develop personas. We follow with a usability analysis of common patient portal
products to determine whether these products meet the identified user needs. The outputs will include user-
centered guidelines for patients across the spectrum of usage and portal engagement. This has the potential to
improve patient portals based on a deep understanding of patient needs, identification of the shortcomings of
current patient portals, and learnings from those systems with successful adoption (incentivized or otherwise).
This project utilizes the extensive expertise of the research team in human factors and safety science, health
IT, and health equity research. Contributions from this research will include a fundamental understanding of
what information patients seek when accessing their patient portal and current challenges with existing patient
portals. The findings from our research will be disseminated through traditional academic outlets, but also
directly to providers and associations who ultimately customize vendor products according to their patients’
needs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10017201
- **Project number:** 5R03HS026298-02
- **Recipient organization:** MEDSTAR HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** Naheed Ahmed
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $35,438
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2022-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10017201

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10017201, Designing for Demographics- Optimizing the Usability of Patient Portals (5R03HS026298-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10017201. Licensed CC0.

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