Screening for chronic conditions using a patient internet portal: Recruitment for an internet-based primary care intervention

BACKGROUND: Patient Internet portals have created new opportunities for assessment and management of chronic conditions. OBJECTIVE: To conduct an online screening survey for a study recruitment using a secure patient Internet portal to identify primary care patients with untreated depression, chronic pain, or mobility difficulty before nonurgent office visits. DESIGN: Internet-based screening survey for a randomized trial. PARTICIPANTS: Patients who were registered portal users who had scheduled primary care appointments. APPROACH: Electronic study invitations via the portal were sent to 4,047 patients with scheduled visits to 34 primary care physicians participating in the study. After clicking on a link in the study invitation, patients were consecutively shown the study description, consent form, and lastly, the screening survey to determine final eligibility for study participation. RESULTS: Of the 2,113 (52%) patients who opened the study invitation, 1,001 consented online to join the study and 981 (98%) of these completed the screening survey. Of the respondents, 319 (33%) screened positive for 1 or more of the 3 conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The online screening survey conducted through the patient portal was effective in identifying patients with chronic conditions in advance of scheduled primary care visits for participation in an intervention study.