The University of California at Irvine in 2021 set up an online portal where women could schedule screening that their healthcare provider ordered or that they requested on their own. In all, more than 22,000 women used the portal.
Most likely to self-schedule were Hispanic women and women living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Most likely to self-refer themselves for screening were Black women (compared with White women), those on Medicaid (compared with private insurance, and women living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Online portals may reduce scheduling barriers for women who adhere less to breast cancer screening guidelines, the researchers concluded.
- See: “Can self-scheduling and referral close breast cancer screening gaps?” by Amerigo Allegretto on the AuntMinnie.com website (August 1, 2023)
- See the scientific paper “Role of Online Patient Portal Self-Scheduling and Self-Referral Pathways to Decrease Health Disparity for Screening Mammography” by Ben Sadeghi et. al.
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