Latinos Want to Become Active Players in Their Diabetes Treatment and Disease Prevention

For many years, technology has impacted every aspect of our daily lives – and it is slowly making its way into healthcare. In fact, health information technologies, such as patient portals, are redefining the physician-patient relationship and transforming the way in which diseases are diagnosed and patient care is delivered. The question is: do patients want to use healthcare IT? According to a study by EHR software research firm Software Advice, many patients do.

Software Advice conducted a study of 1,983 Latinos/Latino Americans to find out if they would be willing to use technology in their fight against diabetes. Latinos have double the risk of suffering from diabetes compared to non-Latino whites.

The results showed that 60 percent of Latinos are eager to track diabetes-related health risks by accessing their medical records online. Meanwhile, 71 percent said that they would be more likely to try to lower their diabetes risk factors if their doctor provided a personalized risk assessment via email.

Latinos’ Interest in Using EHRs to Monitor Diabetes Risks

Encouraging Patient Engagement and Patient Portal Use

Although healthcare IT is relatively new to the public, it is creating a push for doctors to encourage patients to become more active participants in their own health – and patients, it seems are up for the challenge. Latino patients, specifically, are willing to play a bigger role in their own disease prevention and/or treatment.

Patient portal software is an important tool for patient engagement, and healthcare organizations are slowly adopting it. It is important, however, for providers to make patients aware of the existence of the software, as well as the benefits that accessing it can have on their health.