Asthma, a chronic treatable disease, disproportionately affects low-income and minority adults, particularly African Americans and Puerto Ricans. Improving access to care and patient-provider communication, believed essential for better outcomes, increasingly rely on information technology including features of the Electronic Health Record (EHR), such as a general –purpose patient portal that offers web-based communication with providers and practices. The portal allows patients to access parts of their medical record, review test results, make appointments, and request refills, and it provides a secure platform for electronic messaging with providers. How patients with limited resources and educational opportunities can benefit from portals is unclear. In contrast, home visits by community health workers (CHWs) specially trained for asthma have improved access to care for children with asthma and promoted caretaker-clinician communication.
