A place to practice. Confidence for your own health portal.
Tracing Care is a practice health portal filled with made-up information. You can click around, make mistakes, and learn at your own pace before you use the portal at your own doctor's office.
Learning the portal should feel manageable.
Health portals now hold your visits, messages, medicines, and test results. Many people are expected to learn them alone, with their real information on the screen. Tracing Care gives you a calm place to learn first.
Explore without pressure
Nothing you do here changes a real record or reaches a real doctor. Click anything, get it wrong, and try again.
Build skills that carry over
The practice portal is laid out like the ones many clinics use, so what you learn here helps you find your way in your own portal.
Small steps toward greater confidence.
Find your way around
Learn where things live: home, messages, test results, visits, and bills.
Prepare for an appointment
Find the date, time, and doctor, and read any notes about getting ready.
Understand messages and results
Read a message from the care team and find a test result, with plain-language help.
Find medicines and refills
See your list of medicines and practice asking for a refill.
Recognize privacy and sharing settings
Learn how family helpers can be given access, and how to spot scam emails, text messages, and phone calls.
Know when to ask for help
Know when a portal message is fine, and when to call the clinic instead.
Familiar screens. A place to learn.
Meet Robin Merriweather, our made-up patient. You'll help Robin with everyday tasks, like finding a visit or asking for a refill.
See it. Try it. Make it familiar.
Start with what matters to you
Pick a task you'll actually use, like checking a visit or asking for a refill.
Walk through it together
Guided Practice gives one step at a time, with a "Show me where" button if you get stuck.
Practice again at your own pace
Start over anytime. Repeat a task until it feels easy.
Connect it to your own portal
Use the same steps in your own doctor's portal, knowing what to look for.
Add Tracing Care to your home screen.
Put Tracing Care on your phone, tablet, or computer like an app, so you can open it with one tap whenever you want to practice. It's free, and you don't need an app store.
Take your time and go one step at a time. It's fine to ask a family member or someone you trust to do this with you.
You're all set. Tracing Care is on your home screen.
iPhone or iPad
Your device- Find the Safari app on your iPhone or iPad. Its icon is a blue compass. Tap it to open it.
- Tap the address bar. On most iPhones it's at the bottom of the screen. On an iPad, it's at the top. Type tracing-care.com/
healthportal and tap Go. - Find the Share button. It's a square with an arrow pointing up, usually at the bottom of the screen. If you don't see it, tap the three dots ••• first, then tap Share.
- A list slides up. Slowly scroll down with your finger until you see Add to Home Screen. Tap it.
- Tap Add in the top right corner.
- Go back to your home screen and look for the Tracing Care icon. Tap it anytime you want to practice.
Android phone or tablet
Your device- Find the Chrome app on your phone or tablet. Its icon is a red, yellow, and green circle with a blue dot in the middle. Tap it to open it.
- Tap the address bar at the top of the screen. Type tracing-care.com/
healthportal and tap Go or the Enter key on your keyboard. - Tap the three dots ⋮ in the top right corner.
- A menu opens. Look for Add to Home screen or Install app. You may need to scroll down. Tap it.
- Tap Install or Add to confirm.
- Go back to your home screen and look for the Tracing Care icon. Tap it anytime you want to practice.
Computer
Your device- Open Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, the program you use to visit websites. (Don't have either one? You can still practice in any browser. Just bookmark this page.)
- Click the address bar at the top of the window. Type tracing-care.com/
healthportal and press the Enter key. - At the right end of the address bar, look for the install icon. It looks like a small screen with a down arrow. Click it. Don't see it? Click the three dots in the top right corner and look for Install.
- Click Install.
- Tracing Care opens in its own window. Next time, find it with your other programs or on your desktop.
Not sure which phone you have? An iPhone has an Apple logo on the back. Most other phones are Android.
Adding Tracing Care doesn't share any personal information. Everything inside is still made up, and practice works even without internet after your first visit.
Built around learning, shaped by people.
Tracing Care is a working project. Here's what you can use today and what's coming next.
Ready to try now
- Guided Practice: seven short lessons, one step at a time
- Explore Mode: look around Robin's full practice portal
- Bigger text with one tap, on a computer, tablet, or phone
- Accessibility built into every screen from the start
- Add it to your home screen and use it like an app
Coming next
- Practice sessions with older adult learners, and changes based on what they tell us
- More lessons, like reading a bill and joining a video visit
- Practice in Spanish and Portuguese
- Simple tools for library and community workshops
A learning space with a clear purpose
Tracing Care is for practice only.
- It is not connected to any doctor, clinic, hospital, or health plan.
- It does not give medical advice or care.
- Nothing you do here sends a real message, request, or payment.
- Every name, record, clinic, and pharmacy is made up.
Are you an educator, partner, or researcher?
See the full project: the research behind it, the student EHR track, and the roadmap.
Interested in the training project?
I'd love to hear from libraries, senior centers, and community groups that help older adults with health technology, and from anyone who wants to try it and share feedback.