At least 12 percent of Americans now communicate with their healthcare providers about appointments, test results, and ongoing treatments through secure online patient portals and health apps, according to a new study published on June 22.
The study, led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, analyzed more than 140 million patient records from 2,067 hospitals and 47,100 health clinics across the United States. Researchers evaluated over 8 billion patient-provider interactions recorded between January 2020 and December 2025 using Epic electronic health records. The findings show that while digital medicine has become a routine part of healthcare delivery, it is supplementing rather than replacing traditional in-person care.
According to the study team’s analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), online portal messages more than doubled between 2020 and 2025—a rise of 153 percent—while total telephone calls decreased by six percent during the same period. The number of Americans with an active Epic health record increased from 94 million in 2020 to 140 million in 2025. Thirty percent of active patients on Epic sent a portal message to their clinician during the first three months of 2025.
Dr. Mankowski, assistant professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery, said the research demonstrates increased direct access for patients: "Our findings reveal that while digital health tools have become a core part of healthcare, delivery is becoming more continuous, timeless, and no longer tied to scheduled appointments during routine work hours." Despite these changes in communication patterns, average annual in-office visits per patient have returned to pre-pandemic levels—between two and three per year—and messages from patients have more than doubled since early 2020.
The data also showed that since early 2020 Americans booked at least 1.77 billion in-person clinic visits via Epic systems; sent over one billion messages to providers; received over three billion portal messages from providers; made nearly two billion phone calls; and participated in about 146 million virtual telehealth visits. Dr. Dorry L. Segev said, "Modern delivery of healthcare means increasingly that healthcare providers will have to balance their digital workload on top of their traditional clinical workload." He added that staff training will be needed for messaging platforms as well as AI support programs such as chatbots for content framing and efficiency improvements.
NYU Langone already uses AI tools for drafting provider notes faster. Dr. Segev said future research would focus on trends within specific regions or outpatient clinics that could affect operational planning.
