The Biparistan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit policy watchdog organization, released a report this week that urges various healthcare industry stakeholders to make increased patient engagement a priority. The report’s authors, from BPC’s Health IT Initiative, found that electronic tools such as secure messaging between patients and clinicians, in-home monitoring for patients, and patient portals are critical in improving the cost and quality of care.

The report’s authors contend these and other patient-engagement tools have not been widely adopted. To spur the rate of adoption, it recommended public and private sector leaders build patient engagement awareness campaigns for providers and clinicians. It also looked for the industry to create more patient engagement best practices, such as the one NeHC has tried to create. The BPC also called on various payers, both government and private sector, to include incentives for providers’ use of various electronic-based patient engagement tools.

“Patient-centered care and increased patient engagement are goals that are widely embraced by leaders across the health care system,” Janet Marchibroda, chair of the BPC Health IT Initiative, said in a statement. “Increasing the use of electronic tools, which are so prevalent in other aspects of American life, can significantly bolster patient engagement efforts across health care—resulting in lower costs, better outcomes, and improvements in the experience of care for patients and their families.”