A conversation recently took place on a private breast surgeon’s forum. It revolved around how to best disclose cancer-related test results to patients. The group was pretty evenly split between wanting the patient to come in and have a direct conversation, versus giving preliminary information over the phone. Each group had very valid reasons for their preference.

There is conflicting information in the literature regarding how physicians deliver cancer-related test results and how patients prefer to receive them.

We decided to ask the patients! How were you informed of your biopsy results – and what is YOUR preference?  While you may be several years out from initial diagnosis, we are still interested in your comments. We are also interested in your notification preferences for ongoing bloodwork and scans. Your responses will be delivered back to the physicians in the hope of providing more patient-centered care.

We are not able to trace responses to an individual account, so survey participation is anonymous. The survey will be open until midnight ET Friday 10/23/2015. Anyone who has heard the words “you have cancer” is eligible to participate. Please share within your patient communities both online and in person – the more responses we get, the more significant the results will be.

The link to the survey is here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CancerTestResults

The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Based on participant feedback, we suggest that you take the survey from a desktop or a laptop.

This survey protocol was approved by the Gundersen Health System Institutional Review Board (IRB) with a waiver of the requirement for informed consent. Please note, we can only count responses that are received through the survey link, in order to protect patient privacy and anonymity. 

Please direct any questions regarding this survey to Dr. Deanna Attai: info@DrAttai.com or 818-333-2555

Thank you,
Deanna Attai, MD
Regina Hampton, MD
Jeffrey Landercasper, MD
Alicia Staley