THE WASHINGTON POST – More Americans are learning of devastating health diagnoses through their phones and computers instead of personally from their doctors because of a federal requirement that people receive immediate access to medical test and scan results, from routine bloodwork to MRIs.
This shift has sparked a debate in the medical community about whether instant information empowers patients or harms them.
The new medical landscape resulting from a bipartisan law promoting transparency has exposed fault lines in a stressed health-care system where the promises of technological advancements are undercut by the heavy workloads foisted on medical professionals.
As more people receive troubling results online at the same time as their doctors — often waiting days or weeks for treatment plans — medical associations have been pushing to give doctors more time to release records revealing cancer and other grim diagnoses so patients don’t have to bear the news alone.
Loriana Hernández-Aldama and Cesar Aldama discuss test results last month. Hernández-Aldama, a survivor of acute myeloid leukemia and breast cancer, said she takes comfort in seeing instant results. (John Harrington for The Washington Post)
Mike Day’s cancer diagnosis arrived while he lounged in his living room recliner last summer. His wife, a former registered nurse, spotted “adenocarcinoma” in biopsy results posted to his electronic patient portal. His gastroenterologist was on vacation.
After unsuccessfully trying to make an appointment to discuss the cancerous tumor in his esophagus, the Days went to a crowded emergency room where he lay on a stretcher in a hallway while a specialist discussed his prognosis.
There was no privacy as the doctor, speaking loudly within earshot of passersby, warned the cancer was incurable, Day’s wife recalled.
Four weeks later, Day, a retired U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Bangor, Maine, died at age 75.
His family is astounded by how much trouble they had to go through to get an explanation for a cancer that serious …
