ArticlePatient experience journal2015
The patient portal and abnormal test results: An exploratory study of patient experiences.
Article in Patient experience journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Patient Experiences With Online Laboratory Test Presentations From Access to Activation: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Communicating blood test results in primary care: a mixed-methods systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Pooled it
- Using Electronic Health Record Portals to Improve Patient Engagement: Research Priorities and Best Practices.Annals of internal medicine · 2020Pooled it
- The impact of health information technology on the management and follow-up of test results - a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2019Pooled it
- The Impact of Automated Notification on Follow-up of Actionable Tests Pending at Discharge: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Trial
- Configuring large language models to deliver patient-facing explanations of pathology reports.American journal of clinical pathology · 2026Article
- Enhancing patient engagement and understanding: is providing direct access to laboratory results through patient portals adequate?JAMIA open · 2025Article
- Repeated Access to Patient Portal While Awaiting Test Results and Patient-Initiated Messaging.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Timing of Liver Imaging Result Release Is Associated with Patients with Cirrhosis Reviewing Results Prior to Providers.Applied clinical informatics · 2025Article
- Increasing the Impact and Value of Laboratory Medicine Through Effective and AI-Assisted Communication.EJIFCC · 2025Review
- Cognitive factors impacting patient understanding of laboratory test information.Journal of pathology informatics · 2024Review
- A Computationally-guided Qualitative Analysis to Understand User Experiences with Different Types of Mobile Personal Health Records.AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2024Article
- Alerts and Collections for Automating Patients' Sensemaking and Organizing of Their Electronic Health Record Data for Reflection, Planning, and Clinical Visits: Qualitative Research-Through-Design Study.JMIR human factors · 2023Article
- New Ways for Patients to Make Sense of Their Electronic Health Record Data Using the Discovery Web Application: Think-Aloud Evaluation Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Perspectives of Patients About Immediate Access to Test Results Through an Online Patient Portal.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Communication Skills Training for Oncology Clinicians After the 21st Century Cures Act: The Need to Contextualize Patient Portal-Delivered Test Results.JCO oncology practice · 2023Article
- Patients' choices regarding online access to laboratory, radiology and pathology test results on a hospital patient portal.PloS one · 2023Article
- Codesigning a patient support portal with health professionals and men with prostate cancer: An action research study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2022Article
- Informed or anxious: patient preferences for release of test results of increasing sensitivity on electronic patient portals.Health and technology · 2022Article
- User-Centered System Design for Communicating Clinical Laboratory Test Results: Design and Evaluation Study.JMIR human factors · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Many health care institutions are implementing patient portals that allow patients to track and maintain their personal health information, mostly in response to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act requirements. Test results review is an area of high interest to patients and provides an opportunity to foster their involvement in preventing abnormal test results from being overlooked, a common patient safety concern. However, little is known about how patients engage with portals to review abnormal results and which strategies could facilitate that interaction in order to ensure safe follow-up on abnormalities. The objective of this qualitative study was to explore patients' experiences related to abnormal test result notifications through patient portals. The authors conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 13 participants, patients and primary caregivers, between February 2014 and October 2014. Using content analysis, the authors explored patient experiences accessing abnormal test results through their portals. Respondents strongly favored access to all types of abnormal test results, but they raised several concerns including need for more timely notification and not being able to interpret the exact relevance of the result. Respondents' personal experiences with physicians, test result notification, and the portal heavily influenced respondents' notification preferences. Patient experiences with portals could be improved by development of strategies to help patients understand and manage the information received. These findings suggest important considerations for health professionals and institutions aiming to better engage patients in follow-up of their test results.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28345018PMC5363705What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.