By Jeff Rowe, Contributing Editor

There's no shortage of buzzwords, or buzz phrases, in the world of health IT.  But, recently, one of the most popular seems to be "patient engagement."

That's due in large part to the inclusion of "patient engagement" as one of the criteria in Meaningful Use Stage 2, but even without that federal prod an increasing number of health IT stakeholders are trying to figure out how to get more patients plugged into their own health information.

On Thursday, Nov. 8th, from 1:30-2PM at the HIMSS Virtual Conference & Exhibition, Kate Christensen, MD, of Kaiser Permanente, will be walking attendees through "Improving the Patient Experience through Patient Portal Technology: Lessons Learned".

Christensen is the medical director of the Kaiser Permanents patient portal, as well as the chair of the HIMSS eConnecting with Consumers Committee.  As she sees it, "It's important to keep first and foremost in mind that access to records can really improve healthcare.  Patients can become more knowledgeable about their own health, and when they meet their doctors they can ask good questions."

In short, she said, "patients can be more active in managing their own healthcare."  

Naturally, much of Christensen's presentation will revolve around looking at her experience with Kaiser Permanente's patient portal,  HYPERLINK "http://www.kp.org" www.kp.org.

Currently, she said, "around 50% of the people who could use it are registered to use it.  Based on Kaiser's experience, Christensen pointed to a few key things on which new portals should focus in order to attract users.  

First, make sure you're providing what people want and need to take care of their health.  Next, make it as easy as possible for patients to register and be authenticated when they return to the site.  And third, make sure doctors are increasingly integrating use of the patient portal into interactions with their patients.  Finally, Christensen pointed to the "ubiquitous marketing of the website" Kaiser Permanente does in order to increase traffic.

While Christensen is optimistic about the future of patient portals, she cautioned newcomers to expect "hidden costs" as they work to build their efforts.  Those costs include training time and an initial decrease in provider efficiencies.  

Nonetheless, she said, "this is the future of healthcare.  Patient portals need to be part of any physician's practice."  

With 4 million patients signed up for its portal, Kaiser Permanente is certainly point to the way toward that future.