Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
Patient portals are spaces where the patients can meet all their health needs at the lowest cost with high flexibility at any time through the facilities provided to them. These portals can improve the quality of providing health services.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are the hidden system of community health promotion, are responsible for informing and providing integrated health services. Portals can be used by these organizations for this purpose; however, despite the importance of these portals in providing information and services to the users and their role in customer satisfaction, health-related NGOs use this technology less. Various internal and external factors are involved in the acceptance and use of a technology, such as portals, in a society. Education, as one of the important factors, can influence people’s perception of the usefulness of portals and its acceptance and use. The importance of the role of education in the technology acceptance model and human resource empowerment is so great that no organization sees itself without the need for it. This study aims to evaluate the effect of education on patient portal adoption in health-related NGOs based on the technology acceptance model (TAM).
Methods
The is an applied study with a pretest/posttest design. The study population consists of all employees of health- related NGOs in Tabriz, Iran in 2019. Of these, 32 employees who were working in the field of informatics and information technology were selected as the study samples using a simple random sampling method and using the Krejcie and Morgan table. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire of factors affecting the acceptance and use of technology, whose validity and reliability have been confirmed in previous studies. First, explanations related to the study objectives were presented to the participants, the confidentiality of their information was assured, and an informed consent was obtained. Then, the questionnaires were distributed among them. Two researchers presented the education to the participants in the form of a workshop from morning to evening. The level of acceptance of the portal was measured before and after education. Data analysis was carried out using paired t-tests, Pearson correlation test and linear regression in SPSS v. 22 software.
Results
The mean age of the participants was 46 years. 59.38% had moderate skills and familiarity with computers and information technology, and 68.75% were not familiar with the portals. The means of perceived usefulness (P=0.04) and attitude towards its use (P=0.04) were significantly different before and after the education. No significant difference was reported in other TAM domains. There was a significant difference in portal technology acceptance before and after the education (P=0.05), indicating that holding a training workshop had a positive effect in improving the acceptance of portal technology by the health-related NGOs.
In order to examine the correlation between the TAM dimensions before and after education, Pearson correlation test was used. The test results showed a significant correlation between all dimensions. Finally, the linear regression results showed no significant relationship between portal technology acceptance and age (P=0.63) and between portal technology acceptance and gender (P=0.39), but there was a significant positive relationship between the portal technology acceptance and educational level (P=0.02).
Discussion
The present study showed that the acceptance of portal technology by health-related NGOs is influenced by many factors and there is a complex interaction between them. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to all aspects to plan and provide a suitable context for the use of portal technology by these organizations. Education plays an important role in the attitude towards the use and acceptance of portal technology. In the field of perceived usefulness and ease of use, it is possible to improve their beliefs by familiarizing employees with the usefulness of this technology, presenting successful models in this field, providing a business environment based on this technology, and teaching how to use portals. These trainings can have an effect on reducing anxiety and increasing self-efficacy. It should be noted that these effects will be realized when the organizations support the needs of their employees. It is necessary for health-related NGOs to develop their policies based on the support of employees. The limited time of the employees to cooperate was the most important limitation of this study, which was eased to a certain extent by informing them about the benefits of the current research, attracting their attention, and setting appropriate schedule.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study has ethical approval from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.TBZMED.REC.1397.091).

Funding
This study was extracted from as a master thesis (no.: 59594) approved by the Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. This study was not funded by any organization.

Authors' contributions
Conceptualization: Elham Masserat; Data analysis: Elham Masserat, Mahasti Alizadeh; Data interpretation and preparing initial draft: Zeinab Mohammadzadeh, Mahasti Alizadeh; Data collection: Anna Torkmania; Writing-Original Draft, supervision, and editing & Review: Amir Torab Miandoab.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
 

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