Federal study finds racial disparities in access to health data

Research by the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has found racial and ethnic disparities in patient access to, and usage of, electronic health records (Source: “Report confirms racial disparities in patient access to their health data,” Healthcare IT News, Jan. 5).

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, the ONC study found that in 2019 and 2020, "black and Hispanic individuals were significantly less likely to report being offered and subsequently accessing their portal."

Black and Hispanic people were not offered (5.2 percentage points less likely) and did not access patient portals (7.9 percentage points less likely) nearly as often as white people. 

But when offered access, disparities largely diminished. According to the study, "individuals offered a portal and encouraged to use it by their providers "were 21 percentage points more likely to access it."

"Taken together, our findings point to the important role of healthcare providers in increasing access to EHI by offering portals and encouraging their use," study coauthor Chelsea Richwine, an economist with ONC's Office of Technology, wrote.