Electronic medical records help doctors keep track of patient conditions, prescriptions and consultations with other physicians. They also provide easy patient access to test results, x-rays, EKG’s and scans — usually after a doctor’s review.

Today’s speed of technology raises compelling questions:

Should patients have access to results as soon as they are posted, without waiting for their doctor to release them? Would they even want to know all of their results if they didn’t know what it meant?

A few years back, lab studies from my office were posted automatically. Initially, I thought that it would lead to an endless stream of emails of concern about results that looked abnormal, but really weren’t. However, most people seemed to realize they had upcoming appointments or figured out that if there was something really worrisome, I would contact them immediately.

Standard explanations about the meaning of tests became available, so that no one would be overly stressed about something like a low MCV (mean corpuscular volume), a test indicating the size of a red blood cell that often falls out of the standard range and is not a sign of danger. I still receive the occasional email of alarm, but it’s not a major burden.

The next step in the evolution of full transparency for medical records is the release of radiology reports, including x-rays, CT scans and MRI’s. Some organizations already release these to patients immediately, but this is not yet a common practice where I work.

In theory, any patient can show up at the medical records department and ask for a copy of their records anytime, but this would be an actual notification to patients that their test results were in and immediately available for perusal through their online portals.

When it was proposed as a future plan for increasing access to records, there were a lot of concerns among my colleagues, and myself as well.

What if a patient doesn’t understand the report and pages the doctor after hours to ask nonurgent questions?

What if patients find out sensitive results, like biopsies, on a weekend and then have to wait until Monday to ask their doctor for an explanation?

I am fortunate enough to have a plethora of patients to ask about issues like this. What I heard surprised me.

One gentleman in his mid-60s suggested that he would be in full support of getting all results in real time.

“I’m an optimistic person in general,” he said, “and I would expect to get good news. I’d rather have that then to wait several days or for an entire weekend wondering about it.”

A woman wanted access to test results, but only after I had reviewed them.

“If there was a way to know you saw it, then that’s fine with me, because you would let me know if it was serious, and I don’t want to find out I have a cancer and be all alone,” she said.

Still another patient explained that they would call a friend or do their own research on the internet if they had any questions, and that they would rather have the information on their own then wait around for me to let them know it’s okay.

“After all, you might be busy for a day or two, and I can handle what I read, and ask someone I know if it’s really scary and I need to know what to do asap,” this patient said. “Besides, I’m more likely to schedule a follow-up appointment if I know I have questions. I wouldn’t want to waste time coming in if everything was fine.”

A tech-savvy 80-year-old patient told me “Doc, if I don’t want to know, I won’t log on. But if I do, then I expect to have the results there for me to see when I want.”

My fears of patients being reluctant to have this level of transparency were apparently unfounded.

Time will tell if this whole plan backfires with me getting endless emails about the minutia of medical reports. But if patients truly want to get their results as soon as I do, I feel it’s their right.

It would be nice if reports were easier to read for nonmedical people. It would also be helpful if there were trustworthy websites where people could look up conditions and not get scary death tales of a rare situation that is unlike their own. But that day may not come anytime soon.

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