Online Patient Portal Use Is Associated With Decreased Time to Deceased Donor Renal Transplant in Patients on Hemodialysis
*Polina V Zmijewski1,2, *Eliza Decroce- Movson2, *Steven E Reinert3, *Meaghan M Mallette1, *Jason T Machan1,2, Paul E Morrissey1,2, *Adena J Osband1,2
1Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI;2The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI;3Lifespan Information Services, Providence, RI
Objective: To study the effects of the use of online patient portals that allow patients to track their appointments, labs, and provider visit notes on achievement of renal transplantation.
Design: Retrospective chart review.
Setting: Two outpatient dialysis centers associated with a tertiary care institution.
Patients: We studied 258 hemodialysis (HD) patients. Users (n= 38) were defined as patients who had >1 login. Users in the bottom quartile logged in <1 time every 2 months and users in the top quartile logged in at least 6.9 times per month. 10% of females in our study were defined as users vs. 18% of males (p= 0.08). Caucasians were more likely to be users of the portal relative to African Americans (21.4% vs 10.5%) (p= 0.03). 16.8% of English- speaking patients were users of the portal vs. 9.6% of non- English- speaking patients (p= 0.14).
Interventions: Use of online patient portal.
Main Outcome Measures: Time until renal transplant.
Results: 0% of users at 3 years after initiation of HD were the recipients of deceased donor kidney transplant vs. 5.7% of non- users. At 4 years, 7.1% of users were transplanted vs. 9.5% of non-users. At 5 years, 34.3% of users were transplanted vs. 10.7% of non- users. There was statistically significant divergence of the curves, with the greatest difference observed at 5 years (p = 0.007). Furthermore, increased number of logins per month was associated with shortened time to renal transplantation (p= 0.016).
Conclusions: Online portal use is associated with a higher likelihood of being approved as a transplant candidate and a shorter time on the wait list to receive an organ.
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