A New Cancer Diagnosis is Never Good—Patient Choice, Busy Health Systems, and Health Information Access

Rosenbloom ST, Steitz B, DesRoches CM. A new cancer diagnosis is never good—patient choice, Busy Health Systems, and Health Information Access. JAMA Network Open. 2026;9(6). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.19982

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2850686

Invited commentary

This invited commentary examines how patients receive serious test results through electronic portals, particularly a new cancer diagnosis. Responding to Bhalla and colleagues’ “Patient Perspectives on Electronic Communication of Cancer Diagnoses,” the authors emphasize that the 21st Century Cures Act removes barriers to requested health information but does not require health systems to push every result automatically to patients.

Drawing on “Repeated Access to Patient Portal While Awaiting Test Results and Patient-Initiated Messaging,” “Impact of Notification Policy on Patient-Before-Clinician Review of Immediately Released Test Results,” and “Perspectives of Patients About Immediate Access to Test Results Through an Online Patient Portal,” the commentary argues that automated release and repeated notifications may create urgency, anxiety, and unwanted disclosure. At the same time, delaying results may reduce patient autonomy and increase the risk of missed follow-up, as described in Reece and colleagues’ systematic review of delayed follow-up after abnormal breast cancer screening.

Rather than imposing universal delays, the authors call for better research, flexible release options, anticipatory guidance, and patient-controlled notifications that respect individual preferences for when, where, and how life-changing information is received.

The full commentary is available, open access, here.