Can patient portals reduce health disparities? A perspective from asthma.

Much asthma research directed at achieving health equity is focused on patient education for self-management. Although adults are more likely to die from asthma, most studies target children. With the advent of the electronic health record, patient portals potentially offer adult patients as well as children and their caretakers a resource for disease management education, facilitating communication with health care providers and improving patient access to health care. However, difficult, limited, or inconvenient access to these patient portals could increase health disparities, whereas features such as accompanying audio platforms, the use of multimedia, and the ability to communicate across language barriers and educational levels potentially could improve communication and reduce differences in health outcomes.