{"id":18482,"date":"2026-06-25T05:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/tmp-en-1782376037213\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:27:23","slug":"patients-cancer-diagnosis-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/patients-cancer-diagnosis-portal\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients Are Learning of Cancer via the Portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A growing number of patients are learning they have cancer alone, through the patient portal, before any conversation with their care team.<\/strong> That is the finding of a study published June 24, 2026 in JAMA Network Open<\/em>, which quantified a rarely discussed side effect of the immediate release of test results.<\/p>\n

\"Patient
Many patients who learn of a cancer diagnosis through the portal are alone at the time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What the study found<\/h2>\n

Led by Sheena Bhalla, MD, of the Simmons Cancer Center at UT Southwestern, with senior researcher David Gerber, MD, the 2025 survey questioned patients diagnosed with cancer between 2019 and 2023. In the final analysis of 2,412 participants, 170 of them (7%) learned of their cancer diagnosis directly through the institutional portal. The majority, 1,923 people (84%), received the news from their clinical team \u2014 in person, by telemedicine or by phone.<\/p>\n

Two findings stand out for those who work in imaging. First: among the 170 who found out via the portal, 72 (about 45%, nearly half) had imaging results accompanying the diagnosis. Second: more than half of these patients were alone when they opened the result. In other words, the hardest news of their lives arrived on a screen, with no one beside them and no immediate clinical interpretation.<\/p>\n

Why this is happening<\/h2>\n

The root of the phenomenon is regulatory. In the United States, the “information blocking” rule of the 21st Century Cures Act now requires immediate, unrestricted patient access to electronic health information, with the immediate-release requirement in effect since April 2021. In practice, reports and results appear in the portal as soon as they are finalized \u2014 often before the ordering physician has seen them.<\/p>\n

The context numbers are telling. Earlier studies showed that the share of patients viewing a result before the ordering clinician jumped from about 37% in 2017 to 75% in 2022. That same year, radiology reports were the result type patients most often viewed first (76%), ahead of pathology (58%), and the median time to first view fell from roughly 77 hours to just 6 hours. Radiology, then, sits on the front line of this dilemma.<\/p>\n

The dilemma for radiology<\/h2>\n

“With immediate release of test results, patients are often learning about new or progressing cancer through the portal on their portable devices, at any time of the day, without concurrent clinical interpretation from their care team,” Bhalla summarized. The conflict is genuine: on one side, the patient’s right to access their own data without barriers; on the other, the duty not to turn a raw report into a solitary verdict.<\/p>\n

It is worth remembering that a radiology report is written for another physician, with technical terminology and, often, caveats and differential diagnoses. Read out of context, it can trigger disproportionate panic \u2014 or, at the opposite extreme, false reassurance. Tellingly, three U.S. states (including Texas) have already passed laws allowing delayed portal release of cancer-related results, seeking a window for human contact.<\/p>\n

The emotional weight of a solitary discovery<\/h2>\n

Beyond the numbers, there is a human cost the study helps make visible. Receiving confirmation of cancer is one of the most delicate moments in a patient’s journey, and the way that information is delivered directly shapes anxiety, treatment adherence and trust in the care team. Discovering the diagnosis in an app, in the middle of the night or on a work break, with no one to put it in context, turns an act of care into an experience of abandonment.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, patient preference is not unanimous. Across the full sample, 75% said they would prefer to hear the news from a professional, against 23% who prefer the portal. But among those who actually learned via the portal, the balance flips: about 54% would now prefer that route in the future, and 42% would choose contact with the physician. The figure suggests that for some people, fast access and control over their own information outweigh the discomfort \u2014 underscoring the value of offering options rather than a single rule.<\/p>\n

Mitigation paths and the wider context<\/h2>\n

The authors do not argue for rolling back transparency, but for designing delivery more carefully. Suggested solutions include tiered results release, AI-generated plain-language summaries, and opt-in immediate release chosen by the patient. AI applied to communication plays a central role here \u2014 an idea we explored when showing how GPT-5 can help patients understand the radiology report<\/a> and how the interactive multimedia report<\/a> makes results more comprehensible.<\/p>\n

Beyond the U.S., where patient portals are expanding and data-protection laws reinforce the right to access one’s own records, the debate is just as relevant, even without an immediate-release mandate. The lesson is clear: as imaging services digitize report delivery, it is worth designing workflows that pair transparency with support from the start \u2014 so that technological progress does not mean leaving the patient alone in front of bad news.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> AuntMinnie<\/a> \u2014 study published in JAMA Network Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A JAMA Network Open study shows patients learn of cancer alone, via the portal, before their doctor. See the data and the impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[232,100],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-legislation","8":"category-radiology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"rt_seo":{"title":"","description":"7% of patients learned of cancer through the portal before their care team, a JAMA Network Open study finds. Radiology is on the front line.","canonical":"","og_image":"","robots":"index,follow","schema_type":"Article","include_in_llms":true,"llms_label":"Cancer diagnosis via patient portal","llms_summary":"A JAMA Network Open study (n=2,412) found 7% of patients learned of their cancer diagnosis via the portal, many alone and without immediate clinical interpretation.","faq_items":[],"video":[],"gtin":"","mpn":"","brand":"","aggregate_rating":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18482\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=18482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18482\/revisions\/"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18484,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18482\/revisions\/18484\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18478\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=18482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=18482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rtmedical.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=18482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}