An empirical examination of patient–physician portal acceptance

Healthcare providers have recently begun deploying Internet-based patient–physician portals. These applications allow patients to both communicate with their providers and access personal medical information, such as laboratory results. Research within medical informatics explores, and debates, the utility of such functions from the patient and physician perspectives. However, work does not examine factors influencing patient use, assuming that once built and deployed patients will come. Hence, the current research empirically investigates patient behavioral intentions (BI) with respect to (a) use of electronic communications functions and (b) accessing of individual medical information through an Internet-based patient–physician portal. Surveying 294 patients, this work incorporates individual factors, namely computer self-efficacy and personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology, with technology-based factors identified in the Technology Acceptance Model. The analysis finds that usefulness and innovativeness have a positive direct effect on BI with respect to both functions, namely communications and information access. Additionally, patients with greater healthcare needs foresee increased use of portals to access their personal medical information. Finally, patients in primary care, as opposed to specialist, provider settings intend to engage in electronic communications.