Online Portal Use of Pathology Reports in Patients With Solid Tumors

Patients can now immediately review pathology reports via online health portals.

To better characterize patient perceptions of pathology report helpfulness and preferences for access of pathology reports via a patient portal.

Semistructured interviews were conducted with oncology patients with breast, endocrine, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and thoracic malignancies. Patient demographic information, cancer type, question responses, and thematically grouped comments were statistically analyzed.

Among 230 patients, there was equal sex distribution (116 of 230, 50.4% female; 114 of 230, 49.6% male). Patients who viewed or had a support member view their reports in the portal (172 of 230; 74.8%) differed from those who did not (58 of 230; 25.2%) only in perception of helpfulness (P < .001) of the report. Difficulty understanding medical terminology was the most frequently cited challenge among both those who found the reports helpful (30 of 160; 18.75%) and not helpful (31 of 46; 67.4%). Most patients (196 of 230; 85.2%) preferred immediate release of results, even if the news was bad, whereas some (34 of 230; 14.7%) would opt out of immediate release for fear of misunderstanding (11 of 34; 32.4%) or receiving distressing information from reading the report (23 of 34; 67.6%).

Options for portal flexibility (ie, patient choice of opting for immediate release of some, but not all, results), patient-centered pathology reports, educational materials, clinician preparation of patients, and tailored patient support are strategies that can help more patients benefit from reviewing pathology report information.