Handoffs between radiologists and patients: threat or opportunity?

Radiologists, referring physicians, and patients all have certain legal rights regarding access to medical records, including imaging data. The degree of patient access is likely to increase with the growing adoption of patient portals and personal health records. In addition, referring physicians and radiologists have a collective responsibility to ensure that important findings are transferred appropriately between their practices. In some cases when this is not possible, communicating directly with patients is the best way to protect the interests of both patients and radiologists. Even when not required, some radiologists have extensive experience communicating results directly to patients. Direct communication of radiology results to patients may present an opportunity to satisfy patients and reassert the importance of the physician-patient relationship in radiology.