We may think of a Patient Portal as a window for exposing health records to patients... as this is the most common use to date.
Connect Care seeks much more from patient-facing information services. We want the clinical information system (CIS) to be used by patients as much as by their providers. Communication, way-finding, symptom surveillance, education, decision-support, e-visits and scheduling are just some antidotes to the information fragmentation that frustrates patients' experience of health care. Indeed, we may want to talk less of "portals" and more of "bridges"; connoting connection, bi-directional interaction, and gap-mitigation.
Many patients first experience fragmentation at the beginning of health encounters or when "on-boarding". So much information is re-captured, yet important information falls through the cracks.
Patient-centred information bridges could enable better patient-provider-team interactions. A number of organizations have been innovating with inclusive information services that use communication to break through traditional portal constraints.
Microsoft spotlights case-studies of promising health information innovations. A recent example cites the experience of Nicklaus Children's Health System with digital communication networks for patients and families. Obviously not peer-reviewed evidence, but interesting read nonetheless: