• Posted June 26, 2026

Most Patients Want Docs To Break Cancer News Directly, Not Through Portal Messaging

People are becoming more comfortable communicating with their doctor through clinics’ patient portals.

Folks use the portals to ask their doc questions and even to review the results of recent medical tests.

But there are some matters that still require a face-to-face interaction between doctor and patient, a new study says.

In all, 3 of 4 patients want to hear about a cancer diagnosis directly from their doctor, rather than through a portal message or report, researchers reported June 24 in JAMA Network Open.

“While most patients in the general population appreciate rapid electronic access to test results, the situation for patients with cancer is much more nuanced,” lead researcher Dr. Sheena Bhalla said in a news release. She’s a medical oncologist at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

“Learning about a cancer diagnosis without the ability to immediately ask questions or discuss next steps with a trusted clinician can add to the significant stress, uncertainty and fear that patients experience,” Bhalla said.

At least 12% of patients now use secure portals to communicate with health providers, with patient messages to docs more than doubling in recent years, according to a separate study published June 22 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

But researchers suspected that the new technology might not be as accepted when it comes to communications regarding life-threatening conditions like cancer.

A new federal law called the 21st Century Cures Act mandates that patients have timely, unrestricted access to their electronic health information. Unfortunately, that means that an increasing number of patients are learning about a cancer diagnosis through their portal, rather than getting the word straight from their doctor.

For the new study, researchers surveyed more than 2,400 patients diagnosed with cancer at UT Southwestern between 2019 and 2023.

About 84% of the patients received their cancer diagnosis in a face-to-face communication from their health providers, either by phone, in-person or via a telemedicine video visit, researchers found. About 7% learned their cancer diagnosis through the health system’s portal.

About 75% said they would prefer learning about a new cancer diagnosis by speaking with a doctor, while 23% said they’d be fine learning about it through a portal message.

More than half of the patients said they were alone at the time they received their diagnosis.

“That’s one of the most unintended consequences of real-time access,” Bhalla said. “Patients are often alone without support from their physician or family at one of their most vulnerable moments.”

Doctors and patients can avoid unintended communications regarding cancer or other topics by adjusting portal notification settings, researchers said.

Health care systems also might develop delayed-release strategies for telling patients about particularly sensitive findings, researchers said. California, Kentucky and Texas have passed laws that allow delayed portal release of reports related to cancer or other serious medical problems.

Researchers said portals also can better serve patients by generating plain-language summaries of radiology and pathology reports, which can be too technical for average people to understand.

“Further study and increased interdisciplinary collaboration among oncology clinicians, health services researchers and digital health experts can help us better understand how patients receive and react to cancer diagnoses,” Bhalla said. “Our goal is to increase awareness of this issue and help drive innovative approaches to patient-centered communication.”

More information

The American Medical Association has more on what doctors want patients to know about portal messaging.

SOURCES: UT Southwestern Medical Center, news release, June 24, 2026; JAMA Network Open, June 24, 2026