The trend: Consumers want to use digital tools to interact with their healthcare teams. But many medical practices still lag in adopting technology that lets patients message doctors, schedule appointments, and pay bills. These are the key findings from an athenahealth report that included a survey of 1,000 US consumers and a study of digital health adoption among 6,300 medical clinics.

Digging into the data: About 60% of consumers currently use a patient portal, making it the most used digital health tool—ahead of emails, texts, and telehealth.

Consumers value using digital tools to communicate with healthcare providers, access their medical data, and book and receive care.