Why Patients Worry More After Seeing Incomprehensible Medical Reports

New York: Medical reports worldwide are not written with patients in mind, which increases their overall level of worry as they find test results hard to understand, according to researchers.

For example, a standard pathology report is written by a pathologist for a clinical specialist like a surgeon or a cancer doctor or for other pathologists to read, said Cathryn Lapedis, of the Department of Pathology at University of Michigan Health in the US.

In a study published in the journal JAMA, Lapedis and her colleagues tested whether people could understand standard pathology reports and whether a patient-centred report might improve patient understanding.

A patient-centred pathology report gives important information on the patient’s diagnosis in a clear format that minimises medical terminology, she said.

For example, a standard pathology report will include a term like prostatic adenocarcinoma, but the patient-centred report will simply call it prostate cancer.

The team recruited 2,238 adults, aged 55 to 84, who had a prostate but no history of prostate cancer. Participants were provided with a hypothetical scenario in which they were seeking care due to troubling urinary symptoms, received a biopsy and then would receive results from that test through their patient portal.

They were also asked to report their level of worry based on the results.