• Jeannine R LaRocque, Christina L Davis, Tina P Tan, Frank J D'Amico, and Daniel J Merenstein.
• From the Department of Human Science, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC (JRL, CLD, DJM); the Department of Family Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC (TPT, DJM); the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (FJD); and the St. Margaret Family Medicine Residency Program, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA (FJD). jan.larocque@georgetown.edu.
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2015 Nov 1; 28 (6): 759-66.

IntroductionThe general public's preferences for modes of communication (other than in-person communication) for medical test results were investigated. We hypothesized that patients would prefer a variety of methods to receive common tests results (blood cholesterol and colonoscopy) compared with genetics test results.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional survey.ResultsA total of 409 participants responded to the survey. Among these participants, ≥50% reported that they were comfortable receiving results for a blood cholesterol test or colonoscopy via 4 of the 7 non-in-person communication methods (password-protected website, personal voicemail, personal E-mail, and letter were preferred over home voicemail, fax, and mobile phone text message). In comparison, >50% of participants were comfortable with only 1 non-in-person communication method for non-HIV sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and none for genetic tests. Patients were least comfortable receiving any information via fax, regardless of test type. There were statistical differences among comfort levels for blood cholesterol and colonoscopy tests and both STIs and genetic testing for personal voicemail, personal E-mail, mobile phone text message, and password-protected website, but there were no differences between STIs and genetic testing. No correlation was found between "familiarity" with test and "comfort" of receiving information about specific test.ConclusionsParticipants demonstrated preferences in how they received test results by non-in-person communication methods, preferring personal E-mail and password-protected websites, but did not prefer fax. Importantly, participants also demonstrated that preference was dependent on test type.© Copyright 2015 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

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