5 Key Takeaways

• 1

  The study analyzed 3.6 million patient-initiated messages to assess disparities in clinician response based on writing style and content.

• 2

  Black patients had a 3.7-percentage point lower response rate from target clinicians compared to White patients, indicating a significant disparity.

• 3

  Writing style accounted for 48% of the target clinician response gap among Black patients, highlighting its influence over response differences.

• 4

  Characteristics such as using the clinician's name, positive sentiment, and message length were associated with higher response rates.

• 5

  The study's limitations include its single health system data source and the inability to capture all aspects of message content or writing style.