Patient portals, health apps, and the other various personal health information technologies provide great opportunities for increasing patient activation and engagment with their health and their ability to successfully navigate their healthcare system. Furthermore, an increasing number of studies are finding positive outcomes related to the use of these patient-centered tools. While these findings are encouraging, it is still important to assess the effectiveness and fit of these new tools and services when using them to engage a Health Center's community. Effective evaluation can help determine whether a tool is good or bad or simply not the right fit for a particular cohort of patients. In order to determine why a tool is successful or not requires an understanding of the technical, social, and clinical factors that may impact the way a patient interacts with the technology.
The evaluation tools within this resource set provide examples of different measurements that can be used to assess the value and effectiveness of electronic patient engagement tools and services.