Does portal writing style contribute to disparities in clinician response?

Message length, punctuation, and clinician greetings were associated with intended clinician response.

Category	Detail
Condition	Disparities in clinician response to patient messages
Key Mechanisms	Influence of writing style on response rates
Target Population	Adult patients using electronic health records
Care Setting	Primary care practices

Patients from historically marginalized groups had lower response rates from care teams.
Writing style accounted for significant disparities in clinician response rates.
Message characteristics such as length and sentiment influenced response rates.
Black patients had a 12% lower response rate compared to White patients.
Shorter messages and lack of expressive punctuation were common among marginalized groups.

Adult patients from a single academic health system

Writing style and message characteristics impact clinician response

Clinical Scorecard: Does portal writing style contribute to disparities in clinician response?