Sharing Test Results
The Value of Sharing Test Results
Clinical care is proven to be safer, more transparent, and more efficient when patients and healthcare professionals have access to a complete health record, including any new test results, in real time.
Access to test results, in accordance with the basic tenets of patient-centred care, leads to better patient engagement and greater involvement in medical decision-making.
It also means:
Clinical decisions based on accurate information
The latest information is immediately available to all healthcare professionals, no matter where the patient is treated
Outpatient appointments avoided, creating more capacity
Patients are less anxious and more prepared for face-to-face appointments
Appointment time is more productive, discussing future goals (rather than just the results)
Telephone enquiries are reduced
Face-to-face interactions can be replaced by PKB synchronised messaging, creating capacity
Patients develop a better understanding of their health, empowered to self-manage their care
All patients, particularly those with long-term conditions, are more informed and can take steps to manage or remedy their health
North West London
Sharing test results for over 7 years, with over 42million results shared via PKB with their patients to date
Watch the video below of Dr Sanjay Gautama from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and our PKB Chairman, Dr Richard Smith as they discuss how people react to the changes in the way healthcare data is shared and the importance of doing so.
Dr Sanjay Gautama has been a Consultant Anaesthetist for 20 years at the Trust alongside his role as Chief Clinical Information Officer, Cauldicott Guardian and CCIO/IG Chair for North West London. He also holds London-regional roles as Clinical Information Lead and Chair of the London IG Steering Group.
What Patients Tell Us
For cardiology patient Linda, sharing access to her test results showing her most recent troponin levels taken at Hammersmith Hospital (London) following a cardiac event, meant that she didn’t have to stay overnight at her local hospital in Bradford after experiencing an irregular heartbeat.
For another cardiology patient in Wales, access to test results is essential to self-management. Deborah says: “It's vital week-by-week for me to view my results - I have blood tests put on the system almost weekly. I can look at them, ask questions or have my questions ready for my appointments. So, it’s critical.”
What The Evidence Says
Evidence collected from the NHS organisations using PKB shows that access to test results improves care co-ordination, reduces anxiety for patients and means time spent during appointments is used more effectively.
11 Acute/ Mental Health Trusts are currently sharing test results with their patients using PKB. No organisations have subsequently turned off their test result feeds. Instead, they have all continued to connect more feeds and increase the amount of data shared with patients over time.
Case Studies
Swansea Bay University Health Board
Swansea Bay University Health Board is the first organisation in Wales to go live with a national integration to share test results with patients in the Urology Service. This clinical team manages patients with prostate cancer and are enabling patients to access their PSA blood test results faster with PKB. Patients are being informed and educated on the purpose of PSA monitoring and encouraged to recognise a pattern in their individual results. Before PKB, patients would typically wait several weeks to learn about their PSA result and its significance. Now, they are alerted to new blood results after 7 days and given support to understand and manage this information.
The Kings Fund Report:Technology and innovation for long-term health conditions
"As well as enabling more effective relationships, some of these innovations are also designed to shift the balance of power between patients and the professional staff delivering health services. In the UK, any organisation that adopts Patients Know Best gives patients full and immediate access to all information contained in the portal on their health and care. Patients can access test results as soon as they arrive and see everything that has been written about their care. This means that they are in a much better position to alert staff and help correct errors and have detailed discussions with staff about their care. As for relationships above, there is scope to design in features of digital services that support this rebalancing of relationships between service users and professionals, for example, simply ensuring that people have access to their full medical record or ensuring that patients should always be able to decide who accesses their data and how it can be used. "
Increased Patient Engagement
A review of patients with, and without access to their test results shows that patients with access are more engaged:
The Care Information Exchange
In a survey conducted by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in 2019, 500 PKB users of the Care Information Exchange were asked how useful they find the following features:
Radiology reports
75% of patients reported that the ability to view their radiology reports is extremely useful with 25% suggesting this is very useful.
Blood test results
71% reported that the ability to check their blood test results is extremely useful. 21% stated this was very useful. 4% said this was moderately useful. A further 4% suggested this is slightly useful.
Did you understand the information that you saw on CIE?
In the same survey, patients were asked if they understand the information they saw in PKB. 45% said they definitely understand the information. 55% of patients understand the information they saw to some extent. 0% of patients responded that they could not understand the information, or were not sure.
What Health and Care Professionals Say
“Patients have their blood tests done at a time and place to suit them. Then they contact the department via PKB and if all is well, a prescription is issued for them to pick up at a time to suit them. If we sign up 100 patients to PKB, that’s another 300 slots we can allocate to patients that need a face-to-face appointment.”
Since the launch, Dr Blackford’s work has received international recognition.
“My son has been treated in numbers of centres […] it’s very difficult for any individual clinician to get a feel for the whole thing and I think having something that is the real patient centric view of the health record and the things going on through all the different co-morbidities is really useful and can be a massive help for clinicians.”
Storing Test Results in a Patient's Record
PKB stores data about the patient, for the patient. Data in the PKB record goes wherever the patient wants it to, whenever they need it to.
As a social enterprise with a mission to empower patients, we welcome the trend in recent years of more organisations allowing more patients to see more data from more systems. As part of this, PKB has tightly integrated with the UK's NHS App, and the Netherland's PGO infrastructure.
PKB goes further than the NHS App and hospital portals because it gives the data to the patient:
Data from all sources: PKB receives 20 million test results every month from all care settings including GPs, hospitals and mental health providers, the patient, their carers, and devices. By contrast the NHS App shows data from GP systems in England, the NHS Wales app shows data from Wales, and MedMij's PGO infrastructure only shows data from Dutch providers.
Carers can access a patient's PKB record: a patient can grant individual free access to the record, each with their own logins, and with separate granular permissions.
Shared care records can access a patient's PKB record: all data in the PKB record are available to other record systems. Clinicians can see the data in the PKB record by logging directly into the PKB web site; or clicking from their clinical systems using single sign-on; or directly in their clinical systems through API calls. PKB handles the correct consent - implied, explicit and break-the-glass for emergencies - to deliver the data correctly, logging all access for an audit trail.
Third-party apps can access a patient's PKB record: app developers using PKB's APIs to access a patient's data. PKB checks consent - from the patient or professional - for the app to access the data and logs all access in an audit trail.
PKB activates patient and carers about new data: every time new data arrives in a patient's record, PKB notifies the patient and carers about the new data. 75% of patients log into PKB within 2 days of these notifications, and 50% within 2 hours.
Top 3 Common Questions
At PKB, we are confident that giving patients their test results is one of the most helpful things you can do for them. However, here are some common questions asked by clinicians at the beginning as they focus on the safety of their patients:
How can patients understand results?
Many patients—especially those with long-term conditions—are used to reading their results. PKB makes this easier with:
Reference ranges from the lab and date of testing.
Plain-language explanations in 23 languages.
Links to trusted resources like the Royal College of Pathologists.
These tools help patients and carers understand both the meaning and significance of each result.
Will my workload increase with patient questions?
Access to results often reduces unnecessary contact. Patients can interpret their data, prepare questions before appointments, and focus discussions on future care and goals—rather than basic explanations—making consultations more efficient.
Shouldn’t results be released only after doctor approval?
Manual approval adds work and can delay care. PKB improves safety by giving patients immediate access, enabling them to adjust treatment, escalate concerns, and share data in emergencies.
For sensitive results, PKB uses automatic delays—such as holding biopsy reports for two weeks to allow counselling. If contact isn’t made within that time, results are released to avoid harmful delays.
Find Out More
To learn more about the features and benefits of Patients Know Best, or to learn more about the value of sharing health information such as test results with patients and health professionals, visit www.patientsknowbest.com. You can also email us, help@patientsknowbest.com.
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