Patient Access to Online Radiology Reports: Frequency and Sociodemographic Characteristics Associated with Use

Our objective was to evaluate the frequency with which patients viewed their online radiology reports in relation to clinical and laboratory notes and identify sociodemographic factors associated with report viewing.

We conducted a cross-sectional study of 129,419 patients who had online patient portal access in our large health system in 2014. We determined whether patients viewed their radiology reports, laboratory reports, and clinical notes. We also collected patient sociodemographic information including gender, age, primary spoken language, race/ethnicity, and insurance status. We performed multivariate analyses to determine significant associations between viewing of radiology reports and viewing of other types of clinical reports and patient characteristics.

Of 61,131 patients with at least one radiology report available, 31,308 (51.2%) viewed them. Patients who also viewed laboratory reports or clinical notes were significantly more likely to view their radiology reports (P < 0.001). Women (56.2%), patients 25-39 years old (59.5%), and English speakers (53.6%) were most likely to view radiology reports. In multivariate analysis, Asian-Americans were more likely and African-Americans were less likely to view their radiology reports compared to whites (OR = 1.07 and OR = 0.39, respectively; P < 0.001 for both). Patients with Medicaid were less likely to view radiology reports compared to patients with commercial insurance (OR = 0.38, P < 0.001).

More than half of patients with access to online radiology reports viewed them, with higher viewing rates associated with viewing other types of reports and lower rates associated with characteristics of traditionally underserved patient populations.