Patient Preferences for Test Result Notification.

Area of Science:

• Health communication
• Patient engagement
• Medical informatics

Background:

• Patients increasingly access test results, but communication preferences are not well understood.
• Variations in preferences may exist based on test type and result normality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate patient preferences for various test result communication methods.
• To explore how preferences differ for tests with varying emotional impact and for normal versus abnormal results.

Main Methods:

• Survey of adults on preferences for communicating results of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), genital herpes, and cancer biopsy tests.
• Participants ranked seven communication methods (letter, email, text, phone, portal, visit) for normal and abnormal results.
• Analysis focused on favorably ranked and unacceptable methods.

Main Results:

• For normal results, telephone and letters were most preferred across all tests; text and unsecured email were largely unacceptable.
• For abnormal results, office visits became more preferred, particularly for cancer biopsy.
• Younger individuals showed a slight preference for electronic communication, but this was not statistically significant.

Conclusions:

• Test result communication preferences are influenced by the specific test and its outcome.
• Healthcare providers and systems should tailor communication strategies to individual patient and test characteristics.