Table 5. Digital health disparity topic thematic analysis results summary table.

Theme	Description	Key points
Identifying disparities and barriers among specific populations or people with specific conditions	Recent studies have continued to monitor for disparities in patient portal adoption and use.	• Current data suggest that portal adoption and use is still less likely among several groups, including men and black and Hispanic patients, as well as those with limited English-language proficiency, lower levels of education, and less access to health care. 56 58 69 71 72 73 89 90 91 Similar disparities are seen in special care contexts such as palliative care. 77 92 93  • There is some evidence that, among those who access, there may be few differences in feature use, 89 90 but this may depend on the study methodologies, features evaluated portals, and care contexts.  • There is also some evidence that perceived need, privacy and security concerns, usability issues, and perceived negative effect on patient–care team communication are driving some of the disparities in portal engagement. 84 91 94 95
Addressing disparities	Developing, deploying, and evaluating strategies for addressing disparities in portal adoption and use.	• Clinicians play an important role in encouraging or discouraging portal engagement. 89  • Addressing the digital divide 96 and offering multimodal mechanisms 58 59 60 61 62 to engage in one's care can mitigate the risk of digital health disparities.