Online Patient Portal Use and Time to Renal Transplantation in Patients on Hemodialysis

BACKGROUND: Online portals have been shown to be a valuable tool for patients to improve compliance with medical treatment in numerous studies across medical specialties. Our aim was to study the effects of the use of web-based applications that allow patients to track their appointments, labs, and provider visit notes on achievement of renal transplantation. STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective chart review of patients in 2 outpatient dialysis centers associated with a 719-bed tertiary care academic medical center. RESULTS: Nine percent of portal users at 3 years after initiation of hemodialysis were the recipients of kidney transplants vs 9% of nonusers. At 4 years, 23% of users were transplant recipients vs 13% of nonusers. At 5 years, 40% of users were transplant recipients vs 14% of nonusers. There was statistically significant divergence of the curves, with the greatest difference observed at 5 years (p = 0.047). In addition, increased number of logins per month was associated with shortened time to renal transplantation (p = 0.0067). CONCLUSIONS: Online portal use is associated with a higher likelihood of being approved as a transplantation candidate and increased number of logins is associated with shortened time to renal transplantation. (C) 2020 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.