Background: Through online health portals, patients receive complex medical reports without interpretation from their healthcare provider. This study evaluated the usability of MedEd, a patient engagement tool providing definitions of medical terminology in breast pathology and radiology reports.
Methods: Individuals who underwent a normal screening mammogram were invited to complete semi-structured interviews where they downloaded MedEd and discussed their download experience. Acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of MedEd were evaluated.
Results: 143 individuals were invited to participate, and 14 semi-structured interviews were completed. Participants reported ease of downloading and navigating MedEd with concerns about privacy and others' abilities to download. Participants demonstrated high acceptability (mean 4.48/5, SD 0.95), appropriateness (mean 4.66/5, SD 0.83), and feasibility (mean 4.48/5, SD 1.04) scores.
Conclusion: Participants expressed excitement for future use of MedEd and provided suggestions for improvements. Next steps include evaluating comprehension of real breast reports while using MedEd and expanding patient access.
Keywords: Electronic records; Health literacy; Patient portals.
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