Patient Preference for Notification of Skin Biopsy Results, a Retrospective Review

Skin cancer screening clinics form a major component of a general dermatologist’s workload. Historically patient preference regarding the communication of histological results following skin biopsy have not been explored in great depth. Primary care physicians locally report an increased workload with patients seeking results directly from them. We sought to ascertain patient preferences in relation to notification of skin biopsy results among patients attending our department and explored the process from the patient’s perspective. We undertook a interviews with departmental clinical staff to assess what they believed would be important to investigate in relation to the patients’ biopsy experience as well as discussing it with patients in general. Following this we undertook a retrospective study involving a postal questionnaire sent to 100 consecutive patients. We then analysed this data. Our findings suggest the need for greater involvement by the patient at the outset in selecting the most appropriate method of result notification. We also discovered that a proportion of patients may benefit from anxiety assessment at the outset to identify those who will experience most anxiety post-operatively. These changes may facilitate a more patient-centred approach to what is a potentially anxiety-provoking and life-changing process. Further studies carried out post-operatively exploring the patients’ psychological state prior to receipt of results would be interesting to compare with the above findings.