The largest portion of participants in a Georgetown University Medical Center Survey reported they were most comfortable receiving their results through password-protected websites or portal. Across the board, patients were least comfortable receiving information via fax.
“Communication with patients may need to be on a case-by-case basis — every individual may have a personal preference, and there may be a way to indicate those preferences in the patient’s record. The goal of this study was to try to better understand these preferences, so we can improve doctor-patient communication,” Jeannine LaRocque, PhD, lead researcher and assistant professor of human science in the School of Nursing & Health Studies at GUMC, said in a statement.
The survey questioned 409 participants about seven types of non-in-person delivery methods for three tests: common tests like cholesterol and colonoscopy results, genetic tests and non-HIV sexually-transmitted infection tests.
For common and genetic tests, respondents said they would prefer to receive results through password protected websites or portals, but would accept a variety of methods including text, voicemail or email. For sensitive test results, password-protected portals were highly preferred.
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