Resident and Attending Physician Attitudes

E lectronic patient portals have received increasing interest with Meaningful Use criteria and the move toward patientcentered medical homes.1-4 Portals typically allow patients and physicians to send electronic messages to one another in a secure environment. Other functions might include renewing prescriptions, making appointments, and viewing portions of one’s own medical record. Despite potential challenges and need for revised workflow, there are scant data regarding attitudes of faculty and resident physicians at academic medical centers toward electronic patient portals integrated with an electronic medical record (EMR).5 In a 2007 residency program survey, the American Board of Internal Medicine found that only 31% of clinics provided the opportunity for secure email consultations with a provider (including resident physicians).6 Thus at least until recently, patient portals have not been commonplace. Physicians are surrounded by technologic advances such as computers, smartphones, gaming devices, and other daily use electronics, but it is not clear whether health information technology (HIT), such as patient portals, are viewed by either faculty physicians or physician trainees in a positive manner. While physician perceptions of new patient portals are largely unknown, there is evidence that physician perception of the EMR plays