My doctor urged me several years ago to log into and use the patient portal with his office. Not being techno savvy, I was hesitant to do so. But, after a lot of urging from him I did.

Initially I loved using the portal. I could see test results in real time. I could send him a question through the portal and get back an answer without having to go through the trials and tribulations of calling him and going through his switchboard. A short time ago, I needed a certain letter for travel and I got it, through the portal, within hours.

Recently, however, I received a disturbing medical test result and read it through the portal. Although I know that I should not have, I immediately started googling.  Which, of course, made me anxious. My doctor commented on the results on the portal a few hours after they were posted, informing me that I would need further “special” testing. Feeling even more anxious, I immediately wrote him back a slew of questions.

He did answer my questions promptly but, I was dissatisfied with the response. More importantly, I was upset that I did not receive a telephone call from him given the circumstances and the length of time that I have been a patient. I finally called him as I knew that I needed him to calm my anxiety. Which he did do, when he ultimately called me back.

I am going to be fine. But I learned something through this experience. While the use of technology and portals etc. may be more convenient, we all still need a personal connection at times. Do you agree?