ArticleBMJ open2024
Patient discourses on real-time access to test results via hospital portals: a discourse analysis of semistructured interviews with Dutch patients.
Article in BMJ open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Patient Experiences With Online Laboratory Test Presentations From Access to Activation: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Powerless or Powerful? Healthcare Professionals' Construction of Agency in Patient and Family Engagement Accounts.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveReal-time access to test results on patient portals can have advantages and disadvantages for patients. It confronts patients with a complicated decision, namely whether to consult results before the medical consultation. To gain a deep understanding of patients' decision-making processes, we unravelled three discourses about real-time access to test results, each of which articulates a different set of values, assumptions and arguments. Our research question was what patient discourses on real-time access to test results can be distinguished?
designWe conducted discourse analysis on 28 semistructured interviews.
settingInterviews were conducted with patients who had (no) experience with real-time access to test results. Our participants were treated in different hospitals, and therefore, used different portals since Dutch hospitals can choose from suppliers for their patient portals.
participantsPatients with experience (n=15) and without experience (n=13) of real-time access to test results on a patient portal.
resultsWe identified three discourses: (1) real-time access as a source of stress, which highlighted how real-time access could cause stress due to the complexity of deciding whether to access test results, the incomprehensibility of medical language and the urge to repeatedly check if test results were available, (2) anxiety reduction through real-time access showed how real-time access can reduce stress by reducing waiting times and (3) real-time access for self-management showed how real-time access can give patients an opportunity for self-management because they can make informed decisions and are better prepared for the medical consultation.
conclusionOur study shows the plurality in opinions on real-time access, which helps in forming different strategies to inform and support patients in order to realise optimal use of real-time access.
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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 Socratic graph.