Characteristics of Women Enrolled in a Patient Portal Intervention for Menopause

• Published in: Women's health reports (New Rochelle, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2020-10, Vol.1 (1), p.5-510
• Main Authors: Lamba, Avi H, Muralidhar, Kiranmayee, Jain, Anika, Tang, Fei, Gomez-Marin, Orlando, Levis, Silvina, Dang, Stuti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: menopausal symptoms; menopause; Original; Original Article; patient portal; shared decision-making
• ISSN: 2688-4844; 2688-4844
• DOI: 10.1089/whr.2020.0091

Background: We developed a 6-month educational intervention addressing menopause and management of menopausal symptoms called “My Health e Vet to Enable And Negotiate for Shared decision-making” or MEANS. MEANS is offered through secure messaging via the My Health e Vet patient portal system. Materials and Methods: Women veterans aged 45–60 years registered at the Miami, West Palm Beach, and Orlando Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems (VAHS). Intervention group: women in the Miami VAHS enrolled in My Health e Vet who were sent an invitation, agreed to participate, and completed the baseline survey. Comparison group: women from the Miami, West Palm Beach, and Orlando VAHS who responded to the baseline survey. Results: The intervention group enrolled 269 women at Miami VAHS: average age 53.2 years; 42.4% white, 43.1% black, and 24.2% Hispanic; 95.9% already used My Healthe Vet. The Comparison group had 590 women: average age 53.8 years; 70.8% white, 20.7% black, and 10.2% Hispanic; 57.6% already used My Healthe Vet. Conclusions: The differences between the intervention and comparison groups likely represent the regional demographic variations and the disparate recruitment techniques adopted for the two groups. Using within- and between-group comparisons at the end of the 6-month intervention, this novel project will evaluate the feasibility of a patient portal intervention on knowledge and shared decision-making regarding menopause among racially and ethnically diverse women. The study highlights the scalable and enormous potential for patient portals in nonurgent chronic disease management and shared decision-making, important in the existing health care climate, wherein “meaningful use” of electronic health records is mandated. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical care has abruptly changed to telehealth and this approach to patient education is more relevant now than ever before. This quality improvement project's registration number is ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03109145.