Association between secure patient-clinician email and clinical services utilisation in a US integrated health system: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To assess associations between secure patient-clinician email use and clinical services utilisation over time.

Design: Retrospective cohort study between July 2010 and December 2013. Controlling for a utilisation surge around first secure email use, we analysed difference of differences between propensity score-matched groups of secure patient-clinician email users and non-users for utilisation 1-12 months before and 7-18 months after first email (users) or a randomly assigned index date (non-users).

Access to Radiology Reports via an Online Patient Portal: Experiences of Referring Physicians and Patients.

Purpose: Few organizations have reported providing radiology reports to patients via an electronic health record patient portal. The authors describe the process of manual release of reports made by referring physicians, and patients' and referring physicians' experiences during the first year that release through the portal was available.

Methods: A survey of 508 patients assessed perceived accessibility and importance of portal-released radiology reports, and communications with referring physicians before and after the release.