The Patient Portal—Help or Hindrance?

Mostly a blessing I think, I have found the portals very useful. The trick is to NOT try to interpret those results just because you can read English 😊. Curious to know what your MD husband thinks of the same question.

I love it. I get to read doctor's notes which is helpful because I don't have to be bothered taking notes during the visit. Also if I have a question I post it to the doctor and generally get an answer within 24 hrs. I find it saves time.

I use my doctor’s portal. I just leave my message then by 4:00 that day I get a new prescription if needed or an increase in dosage.

I am not charged yet for the service.
I understand that Mayo may charge a fee for using the portal for various purposes. This is new information that I didn’t know about.
I will keep my PCP portal as it’s still free so far. They call me regarding my submission within 3 hours and any new prescriptions are filed from my Doctor directly to my delivered medication as he orders it from his laptop and by 4-4:30 my meds are delivered straight to my office.
I was on 300 mg of Wellbutrin XL in the morning and he upped it to 450 mg mornings. I just started today so I will wait until it starts working before I message or see him in person if the increased dose has bad side affects.

It shouldn’t because I took the GeneSight DNA test and Wellbutrin is considered ok for me. We’ll see.

Because I’m familiar with medicine I can usually understand what I read but sometimes I have to get my husband to interpret as he’s a physician. I freaked once on the drs verbiage he chose to use on a ct scan. Ultimately I get my hubby to read results in case it’s bad because I freak out if it is. Overall access to internet and portals have probably caused more harm than good. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss!!

I whole heartedly agree with your comment! I would be a walking stress ball if I had to wait to get my test results from my doctor, which could be several days later. I am so incredibly grateful to have access to my records.

I am soooo grateful for patient portals! Without patients portal I would be in the dark about many different aspects of my Heart Failure. My Cardiologist present and past never has/had the time to go through all the different test results, and since my heart failure has caused a cognitive decline, I wouldn’t have remembered any details anyway.

I can look at lab results and doctors notes, and decipher them by simply doing research, then asking my cardiologist specific questions regarding concerns I have. It has made everything so much less stressful for me. I am definitely far more informed of my disease than I would have been without access to my medical information. 🙂

I have database experience also. Your comments were well made but led me to conclude that I wasn't clear about one of my points. I've been a patient of the Mayo Clinic for eons. They were the first in my experience with a medical facility where the physicians were all able to share data with others at Mayo by the minute ... you leave one appointment and the MD at the next one knows what the first did, the assessment and the like. In my comments I may have used the word "clinic" in a way that is being interpreted differently. My experience where data was shared was by a portal vendor selling their systems to two different medical facilities not at all connected with each other in any way. The data shared inappropriately and without my knowledge or permission was very dated and some was incorrect. Also I had considered your very salient point then about emergencies in that situation. If not caught by me early on, it could well have been quite serious.

Hi, I live in Canada, where we can request access to our records and no one can deny us that, but they are not sent to us automatically. I actually think that this is a really good idea. In this age of multiple specialties, I find doctors are often asking me questions that I don’t have answers to because I did not receive or ask for the reports that were generated. Sometimes I still forget to ask. Since I have an extremely rare illness. DADS-M I believe it’s important to receive all of my healthcare tests and information right away. I would prefer to have a system that automatically sent me reports. I have spent a lot of time researching my illness and I find with the Internet now and with the new AI‘s available it’s very easy to interpret any information on these reports that I do not understand already. We are all different. I do better if I know exactly what’s going on even if it’s scary. Some people would rather not know. You do not have to look at this information if you don’t want to. Our medical system is getting very complicated and without my lay understanding of medical issues, I would’ve been prescribed drugs I am allergic to. And have also prevented other medical mistakes which would’ve been devastating. I don’t blame the doctors so much as the system, where there needs to be a central hub for communication Between Doctors. With the way things are now I believe patients need to take some responsibility for their care if it is possible. Clearly, this is not always possible. Perhaps and I don’t know how your system works in the US but maybe you could designate someone else to receive this information if you don’t want to get it directly, or as one person suggested send it to a trusted friend or relative to hold or interpret. The unfortunate truth in my situation is that none of my doctors have heard of my illness before, and have no understanding of how my particular issues are cross connected with other specialties, and that I do not react normally to many of the procedures and drugs that are usually given even for common conditions. I have allergies to most drugs as well. On balance. I think your system of sending reports to patients is great relative to the problems that can be easily overcome by either ignoring the information, or by giving it to someone else.

I worked in high tech industry and led projects for implementing universal databases. It takes time (and patience) to educate people. And sometimes the right person (as someone who understands how a database works and the world of the user) is not the person chosen to implement project. But well-designed databases offer a tremendous opportunity in medicine. It makes it easy to track symptoms and treatment outcomes across a grand variety of clinical pictures.
The idea of having a patient portal tied to a database of information is to make it easy for people to change doctors and to see the results of their tests and doctor's notes. But uniformity is required to segment things correctly in the underlying database - maybe that is why they use generic names of drugs so as not to confuse brand names and generics .
Clinics are supposed to be able to see each other's information on the patient - that is IF you are their patient. That is how they see your whole clinical picture...and also avoid duplicate tests. In the case of a medical emergency that will be critical!!!

I have had 5 shots. My doctor told me another shot is unnecessary and that I will be fine if I get COVID. I am not aware of the cancer risk, though. and will check this. I only got the Pfizer vaccines.

Thanks.

Cindy