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Objective: With the rapid rise in the adoption of patient portals, many patients are gaining access to their personal health information online for the first time. The objective of this study was to examine specific usability barriers to patient portal engagement among a diverse group of patients and caregivers.

Materials and Methods: We conducted interviews using performance testing and think-aloud methods with 23 patients and 2 caregivers as they first attempted to use features of a newly launched patient portal.

Results: In navigating the portal, participants experienced basic computer barriers (eg, difficulty using a mouse), routine computer barriers (eg, mistyping, navigation issues), reading/writing barriers, and medical content barriers. Compared to participants with adequate health literacy, participants with limited health literacy required 2 additional minutes to complete each task and …