In this large community-wide study of stroke outcomes, pneumonia conferred a threefold increased risk of 30-day death, adding impetus to efforts to identify and reduce the risk of pneumonia in patients with stroke.

These findings support the premise that federal policies encouraging the meaningful use of EHRs may improve the quality of care across insurance types.

The majority of adults with outpatient visits to a large urban health care system did not use the patient portal, and initiation of use was lower for racial and ethnic minorities, persons of lower socioeconomic status, and those without neighborhood broadband internet access. These results suggest the emergence of a digital divide in patient portal use. Given the scale of investment in patient portals and other internet-dependent health information technologies, efforts are urgently needed to address this growing inequality.