Lets Talk About Delivery

     By Cameron O.    

               I am sure that you and I alike have all been to some sort of medical building to receive simple things such as blood-work tests, physicals, flu-shots and some of us may have visited our local medical department for things such as drug tests and Sexually Transmitted Disease tests.

               A recent article, published on Wednesday, November 11th by Martin Lambert to "Mediplacements.com", took a study of was how today's patients prefer to receive the data and results of the tests listed earlier. This article was not very long but included results that every medical field should take note of.

               The study viewed how patients want to see and maybe even discus the results of everyday common tests, as well as tests that may be more personal such as cancer reports, STD topics and other similar tests. As you may expect, the average person has become more involved in technology compared to previous generations. Patients were more than happy for their own convenience to receive these results regarding simple tests in emails or even text messages from their doctors. This information was not surprising to myself as I have gotten some blood-work done to test for Diabetes, a condition found through many generations of my family that restricts our bodies from producing incline, and did not even get the results back from the doctor since the result was negative. I have also had physicals done with results being text messaged to myself. I see that the convenience for this method of information is quick and easy for both the patient and the medical office.

               On the other hand, when discussing more serious topics and tests the study had shown that patients would rather have the results given to them in person, face to face, or through password protected online sites. Again, this made clear sense to me. I can tell that these people would not want to receive a message on their phone saying "Hello, this is Doctor So-and-So letting you know that you do in fact have cancer". Even though the patients said that they prefer these things, after information was posted onto the sites, records show that many accounts never accessed the information containing their results.

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              This is important within the field of bio-medical science because it is important to pay high levels of attention to making sure that your information, studies, and tests are as accurate as possible, but also respect the patient themselves and make sure that how you deliver the information can make a world of a difference to their lives as well as the actual results. Quoted on "Mediplacements.com", "Jeannine LaRocque, professor of human science at the university and lead author of the study, explained: "Communication with patients may need to be on a case-by-case basis - every individual may have a personal preference and there may be a way to indicate those preferences in the patient's record. The goal of this study was to try to better understand these preferences so we can improve doctor-patient communication."