NEW YORK New York: According to researchers, medical reports across the world are not written keeping patients in mind, which increases their anxiety levels as they find it difficult to understand test results. For example, Katherine Lapedis of the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan Health in the US said that a standard pathology report is written by a pathologist for a clinical specialist such as a surgeon or cancer doctor, or for other pathologists to read. In a study published in the journal JAMA, Lapedis and colleagues tested whether people could understand standard pathology reports and whether patient-centered reports could improve patient understanding. He said a patient-centered pathology report delivers important information about a patient's diagnosis in a clear format that minimizes medical jargon.

For example, a standard pathology report would include the term prostatic adenocarcinoma, but a patient-centered report would 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 a hypothetical scenario in which they sought care due to troubling urinary symptoms, received a biopsy, and then received the results of that test through their patient portal.

They were also asked to report their level of concern based on the results. “We found that most people cannot get basic information from a standard pathology report – such as whether they have prostate cancer. For example, the standard “Only 39 percent of our participants who reviewed university reports were able to accurately identify that the report showed cancer,” Lapedis said. However, 93 percent of those who received patient-centered pathology reports accurately identified Identified that report from Prostate cancer has been shown in. Participants' level of anxiety was more closely linked to their risk level. The study authors recommend that hospital systems combine patient-centered pathology reports with standard reports to improve patient understanding. Consider including.