The patient portal: Power to the people

• Published in: The American journal of surgery 2022-07, Vol.224 (1), p.25-26
• Main Authors: Chen, Kathryn T., de Virgilio, Christian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Electronic health records; Electronic medical records; Health care; Health literacy; Medical records; Patients; Physicians; Web portals
• ISSN: 0002-9610; 1879-1883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2022.03.014

Since the advent of medicine, physicians have historically taken on a paternalistic role, often making decisions for their patients in what was felt to be in their best interest. [...]with the publication of The Patient's Bill of Rights in 1973, patients have increasingly demanded the right to their own medical records and to have control and choice over their healthcare.1 Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have facilitated patient contact to providers through patient portals, streamlined processes from appointment scheduling to prescription renewals, and provided patients access to their own records.2 To paraphrase the tech journalist and author Paul Gillin, “transparency may be the most disruptive and far-reaching innovation” to come out of EMR systems, which have fundamentally changed the physician-patient relationship over the last twenty years. In a mixed methods study, Giardina et al. reported that patients who accessed their test results via patient portal experienced negative emotions when learning of abnormal results, and some even with normal results.5 Moreover, patients with abnormal results were more likely to call their physicians for additional information.5 That being said, the current study provides reassurance that patients want to have access to their health information, regardless of the worries that physicians may have about how it will impact them.