The Safest Way to Use Telemedicine and Patient-Portal Apps
The COVID years pushed telemedicine into the mainstream, and most American patients now have at least one patient-portal app on their phone — MyChart, the various Cerner/Oracle portals, or a stand-alone telehealth service. These apps are genuinely useful: I see patients save themselves and their families hours of travel time every month using them. They can also confuse, mislead, or leak personal information if used carelessly. Here is the plain-English guide I wish I could give every patient on their first visit.
What a patient portal actually does
A patient portal is a secure app run by your hospital or doctor's office that lets you:
- See upcoming appointments, and request, reschedule, or cancel them.
- Read messages from your care team.
- Send messages back (often called "secure messaging").
- See lab results, imaging reports, and recent visit notes.
- Refill prescriptions.
- Pay bills.
- Start a video visit when one is scheduled.
What it does not do is replace urgent care. If you have symptoms that worry you, call your doctor's office during business hours or use the appropriate emergency number — don't send a portal message and wait for a reply.
Signing up for MyChart and friends
The most common system in the United States is MyChart (made by Epic). At your next in-person visit, ask the front desk to "set up my MyChart" — they will hand you an activation code on paper. At home, install the MyChart app, tap "Sign Up," enter the activation code, and create a password.
Cerner / Oracle Health portals (used by many smaller hospitals) work the same way. The app name is usually "[Health System Name] Patient Portal" rather than a recognisable brand.
If you skip the in-person activation step, you can usually sign up online by verifying your identity through a credit-bureau check. That takes about ten minutes and asks personal questions only you would know (former addresses, mortgage details).
Messaging your doctor's office
Secure messaging is the feature most patients use most. A few practical points from the nursing side:
- Write your message like a letter to a real person. First-name greeting, one or two clear questions, sign-off. Long meandering messages take longer to respond to.
- One topic per message. If you have three unrelated questions, send three messages. They may go to three different members of the team.
- Expect a 1–2 business day response. If you need an answer faster, call.
- Many systems now charge for portal messages if they take significant clinical time to answer. Read your provider's policy — it's usually well under US$50 and similar to a copay.
Reading test results without panic
One of the kindest changes recent rules have made is requiring that test results be released to patients almost immediately. One of the cruelest side effects is that you sometimes see an abnormal result before your doctor has had a chance to interpret it.
What to do:
- Look at the result, not the colour-coded "out of range" flags first. Many results flag values just outside the reference range that are clinically meaningless.
- Don't search the internet for what the result "means" before your doctor has weighed in. Search results for abnormal lab values dramatically over-represent worst-case interpretations.
- If something looks alarming, send a portal message asking for interpretation. Your team will respond — usually within a day — with what the result means for you specifically.
Preparing for a video visit
A scheduled video visit through your portal is a real medical appointment that happens on your phone. Five things to do beforehand:
- Test the camera and microphone the day before. Open the app's video-visit feature and run the "test" mode. Don't discover a broken microphone five minutes before the visit.
- Sit somewhere with good light, facing a window, on Wi-Fi if possible.
- Have a paper list of your medications, the questions you want to ask, and any symptoms you want to describe. Three minutes goes quickly.
- Have a notepad to write down what the provider tells you. Most portals don't let you record the visit.
- If you wear hearing aids, put them in. Phone speakers are not ideal for clinical conversation.
Privacy — what to share and what not to
Patient portals run by your hospital are covered by HIPAA, the federal medical-privacy law. Stand-alone telehealth apps — particularly the direct-to-consumer ones advertised on television — vary widely. Two simple rules:
- Read the privacy section of any app that asks for health information. The legitimate ones disclose plainly that they share data only with your treatment team. The shady ones disclose that they share with "advertising partners."
- Don't use a free chat service for medical questions. If a service is free and includes free medical advice, the price you're paying is usually your data.
The general consumer-data protection guidance in our privacy policy applies — but for health data specifically, err on the side of caution.
Proxy access for family caregivers
If you'd like an adult child or spouse to be able to see your appointments and lab results — and to message your doctor on your behalf — most portals support "proxy access." You fill out a form (usually at the front desk on an in-person visit) authorising the family member, and they get their own login that shows your records.
This is a substantial change to your privacy, so think about it before granting access. Many patients grant proxy access to one adult child and not the others; that's fine.
Frequently asked questions
I can't remember my MyChart password.
Tap "Forgot password" on the login screen. The reset link is emailed to your address on file. If that's an old address, you'll need to call your doctor's office to update it.
Is a video visit as good as an in-person visit?
For many follow-up issues, yes — and they save you a trip. For anything that needs a physical examination, hands-on evaluation, or a procedure, no. Your provider will tell you which kind of visit you need.
Can I refill all my medications through the app?
Most of them. Controlled substances (some pain medications, some sleep medications) have stricter rules and may require a phone call or in-person request.
I see a charge for "portal messaging" on my bill. Is that real?
Yes, this became standard around 2023. Messages that require clinical work (reading a description of symptoms, advising on a medication change) are now often billable. Routine logistic messages (rescheduling, asking for an after-visit summary) usually aren't.
What if I have several doctors at different hospital systems?
You'll have several portals. Each system runs its own — none of them combine automatically. Some patients keep a paper "portal directory" listing which doctor uses which app.
Written by Linda Marsh, RN. Reviewed for clinical accuracy by Linda Marsh, RN (BSN, University of Iowa; 18 years registered-nurse experience). Editorially reviewed by David Chen. Last verified 12 June 2026.