Disconnections & Dead Ends: Fixing Proxy Access for Older Adults in Patient Portals
Millions of older adults in the United States manage their health with the help of family and other unpaid care partners from across town and around the world. And yet, existing patient portal technology still feels like a game of whack-a-mole for patients aiming to assign proxy access to a trusted friend or family member.
Portal proxy access is when a care partner has shared access to a person’s online patient portal information.
In this webinar you’ll learn about a new initiative by OpenNotes and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health aiming to help fix the gaps in health information technology for older adults. You will get a status update on a multi-site demonstration project serving older adults in Portland, OR, Rochester, NY, and Salt Lake City, UT. And, you will learn from a patient and physician/family care partner as they describe their lived experiences navigating proxy access.
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Disconnections & Dead Ends: Fixing Proxy Access for Older Adults Slide Deck PDF
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Fixing Proxy Access Webinar Complete Q&A
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Introduction & The Landscape of Proxy Access Research, Cait DesRoches, DrPh & Jennifer Wolff, PhD
Who Dropped the Ball? A Cautionary Tale About Proxy Access From People Who Should Know Better, Liz Salmi
Two Tales of Proxy Access, David Dorr, MD, MS
Proxy Access Research: Looking Ahead, Jennifer Wolff, PhD & Cait DesRoches, DrPh
About the presenters
Jennifer Wolff, PhD is the Eugene and Mildred Lipitz Professor of Health Policy & Management at
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She conducts applied interventional research to improve support for persons with complex health needs and their family and unpaid caregivers. She has been collaborating with OpenNotes researchers for more than a decade on studies related to care partner engagement. In collaboration with OpenNotes, Jennifer co-leads a John A. Hartford Foundation-funded initiative to develop systems-based strategies to more actively and effectively engage care partners in care delivery through shared access to the electronic health record.
Liz Salmi is Communications & Patient Initiatives Director for OpenNotes at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She helps clinicians, hospitals, health systems, researchers, and patient advocates understand the changing nature of patient-clinician communication in an age of growing health information transparency. Her work focuses on involving patients and care partners in the co-design of research and research dissemination.
As a person living with a low grade malignant brain tumor, Liz is passionate about helping all people engage in their own health care by improving their experience as patients. Over the last 15 years she has been: a research subject; an advisor in patient stakeholder groups; a leader in “patient engagement” research initiatives; and an innovator, educator and investigator in national educational and research projects.
David A. Dorr, MD, MS is an internal medicine doctor and OHSU’s Chief Research Information Officer. He focuses on improving capabilities and use of innovations to manage data, information and knowledge in research and in translating it to health care.
His interests lie in collaborative care, chronic disease management, quality and what clinical information systems need to support these areas. He also is interested in patient safety. Dr. Dorr wants to provide the best care for older adults and people with chronic diseases. He has worked on longitudinal care management systems, which are holistic, patient-centered plans. They help keep better track of patients’ needs and goals, help them manage their conditions better, and make them feel like a valued member of the team.
