ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Clin. Diabetes Healthc.
Sec. Diabetes Self-Management
This article is part of the Research TopicScalable Solutions for Improving Mental Well-being for People with DiabetesView all articles
Evaluation of the Implementation of a Patient Portal Pilot Intervention among People with Type 2 Diabetes at Community Health Centers
Provisionally accepted
- 1UCONN Health, Farmington, United States
- 2Yale School of Nursing, West Haven, United States
- 3Indiana University Indianapolis Richard M Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: A pilot study of a multi-level, 6-month intervention (MAP) designed to increase patient portal use among patients with type 2 diabetes at community health centers (CHCs) showed promising results. The aim of this implementation analysis is to 1) describe the nurse-patient interactions and documentation of care during MAP, 2) report MAP implementation successes and challenges, and, 3) describe participants’ use of other online health resources. Methods: Data were collected from MAP nurses (n=3) and participants (n=22). Results: Content of portal messages between nurses and participants were educational and supportive. Numerous health-related social needs that influence participant diabetes self-management were identified, many of which were handled with relevant referrals. Participant-reported challenges changed over time with technical barriers decreasing and competing demands increasing. Participants increased their use of online resources for health improvement. Discussion: Addressing implementation challenges may allow the expansion of programs like MAP in CHCs and ultimately may improve diabetes outcomes.
Keywords: diabetes, Patient portal, implementation, community health center, health related social needs
Received: 21 Aug 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wagner, Akyirem, Lipson, Chen and Whittemore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Julie Wagner
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.