The Patient Results Design Guide: 10 Principles for Clinics and Health Apps
Giving patients access to their results is not the same as helping them understand them. Ten principles for clinics, health apps, patient support programmes and wellness programmes.
Suhina Singh
Founder & CEO, Jonda Health
October 9, 2026
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9 min read
In short
Giving patients access to their results is not the same as helping them understand them.
Every patient looking at a result asks four questions: is this normal, has it changed, what should I do, and who can I ask?
The ten principles below are organised around those four questions, each with a “do this, avoid this” example.
Good results design also depends on the data underneath and on how the clinic works, so both are part of this guide.
Most patients now expect to see their results on a phone or a portal. What happens next varies. Some read the result, understand it and move on. Many search online for an abbreviation they do not recognise, worry about a small flag, call the clinic, or simply close the app and wait for their next appointment.
This guide is for clinics and clinic groups, health app teams, pharma teams running patient support programmes, and insurers and employers running health programmes. It sets out ten practical principles for designing results and records that patients can understand and act on. The examples cover laboratory results, medications, imaging reports and visit history, because patients experience all of these as one record.
The four questions every patient asks
When someone looks at a result, they are almost always trying to answer four questions, usually in this order. A well-designed record answers each of them clearly before the patient has to go looking.
Question 1: Is this normal?
1Name it in plain language, and keep the clinical term
Abbreviations such as HGB (haemoglobin), ALT (alanine aminotransferase) or eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) mean little to most patients when they appear on their own, and searching for them online rarely helps. At the same time, patients need the clinical name to talk to their doctor or compare reports from different providers.
Do“Haemoglobin (HGB): the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around your body.”
Avoid“HGB” on its own, or a plain-language name that hides the clinical term completely.
2Show the value, the unit and the reference range that came with it
A number without its unit and range cannot be interpreted. Reference ranges also differ between laboratories, depending on their methods and the populations they serve, so the range shown should be the one the laboratory reported with that result, not a generic one built into the app.
DoShow the result, its unit and “this laboratory’s range” together, with a simple visual showing where the value sits.
AvoidApplying one fixed range to every result, or dropping the unit to make the screen look cleaner.
3Explain flags calmly
Many results sit slightly outside a reference range without being clinically concerning, and reference intervals are usually set to cover the central 95% of results from a healthy reference population, so some healthy people will fall outside them by design.1 Bright red warnings and exclamation marks on every flagged value cause needless worry and calls to the clinic.
DoUse measured language such as “slightly below this laboratory’s range”, and let the clinic decide which results deserve stronger emphasis.
AvoidAlarm-style colours and icons for every value outside the range.
Question 2: Has it changed?
4Show trends only when the data underneath is consistent
Patients find trends far more meaningful than single values. But a trend is only as reliable as the data behind it. If results come from different laboratories in different units, under different names, or with duplicates, the chart will show changes that never happened, as we describe in The Layer Users Never See.
DoConvert to a consistent unit for display, merge duplicates, keep the originals, and mark where the laboratory or method changed.
AvoidPlotting every value the system holds on one line without checking that they are comparable.
5Build one timeline across the whole record
Patients do not think in separate tabs for laboratory results, medications, imaging and visits. They think in events: “that was when I started the new medication”, “that was after the scan”. A single timeline helps them, and their doctor, connect the dots.
DoPlace results, medication changes, imaging reports and visits on one timeline, with the source and date always visible.
AvoidScattering the record across separate sections, or showing only the date the item was uploaded.
Question 3: What should I do?
6Pair results with a clear next step from the clinic
The most common question after “is this normal?” is “what now?”. Generic advice copied from the internet does not answer it, and can contradict what the patient’s own doctor would say. The most useful next step is the one the clinic has actually decided on.
DoGive the clinic a simple way to attach a next step: “no action needed”, “we will discuss at your next visit”, or “please book an appointment”.
AvoidAutomatic lifestyle advice attached to every flagged value, or leaving the patient with no indication at all.
7Decide which results need a conversation first
Some results are better heard from a clinician than discovered alone on a screen late at night, such as a new diagnosis, a biopsy or imaging finding, or a sensitive test. Local rules on when results must be released to patients vary between countries, so this is a decision to make with the clinic and in line with the regulations that apply.
DoAgree with the clinic which result types are released straight away and which follow a conversation, and tell patients clearly when to expect them.
AvoidReleasing every result the moment it arrives without the clinic’s input, or holding results back with no explanation.
8Have explanatory content clinically reviewed and referenced
Every plain-language description, range explanation and “what this means” note is clinical content, even when it is written by a product team. It needs review by someone with clinical training, and references to recognised guidelines or primary sources where it describes thresholds or risk.
DoKeep a reviewed library of explanations with the reviewer, the source and the date of the last review recorded.
AvoidGenerating explanations on the fly without clinical review, or letting content go years without being checked.
Question 4: Who can I ask?
9Make the route to a person obvious
Even the clearest record will leave some patients with questions. If the route to a person is hidden, they will call the main clinic number, turn up without an appointment, or go without an answer.
DoPut a clear “ask about this result” or “book a follow-up” option on the result itself, routed to the right person at the clinic.
AvoidA generic help page, or a contact option buried in the settings menu.
10Design for family, caregivers, languages and health literacy
In many households, especially across Asia and Africa, family members help manage appointments, medications and results. People may be more comfortable in a language other than the one the report was written in, and health literacy varies widely within any population.
DoOffer proper caregiver access with the patient’s consent, write explanations in plain language, and work with native speakers on translations.
AvoidForcing family members to share a patient’s login, or relying on literal machine translation for clinical explanations.
Design for the clinic too
A patient record succeeds or fails inside the clinic as well as on the patient's phone. If attaching a next step takes five clicks, it will not happen. If every flagged result generates a call, staff will quietly stop recommending the app.
Involve the people who will release results, answer questions and follow up. Design the clinic's side of each principle alongside the patient's side: how a doctor adds a next step, how results are held for a conversation, and how questions reach the right person. A good record should reduce the clinic's workload, not add to it.
From our own work
Jonda Health designed and delivered a personal health record with a clinic in the Philippines, working alongside the clinic team on the patient experience, the data behind it and the delivery. Several of the principles in this guide, particularly giving the clinic control over next steps and designing for family involvement, came directly from that collaboration.
How to test before launch
Results design is easy to get wrong in ways a design review will not catch. Before launch, we suggest five tests.
Use real, pseudonymised records. Clean sample data hides the problems that matter most: mixed units, missing ranges, duplicates and long histories.
Test with a range of patients. Include older adults, people with lower health literacy, people who prefer a different language, and family members who help manage care.
Test with clinic staff. Ask the people who release results and answer questions to use the clinic’s side of the product for a real session.
Walk through the sensitive results flow. Check exactly what a patient sees, and when, for results that should follow a conversation.
Check understanding, not just satisfaction. Ask people to explain a result back in their own words. This “teach-back” approach, widely used in clinical communication, shows whether the design has actually worked.2
How Jonda Health can help
Jonda Health Services: design, build and prove
Design of patient records and results experiences, built around the four questions.
Research and testing with patients, caregivers and clinic staff, including teach-back testing.
Clinical review workflows for explanatory content and sensitive results.
A measurement plan so your programme can show its value.
JondaX: make the data usable
A single application programming interface (API) that turns PDFs, scans, device photos and system messages into structured data.
Consistent names, units and reference ranges, with duplicates resolved and originals kept, so trends and timelines can be trusted.
Review by clinically trained reviewers before mapping to medical coding standards, with 99% field-level accuracy.
ISO 27001 certified and designed to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).
Designing, or redesigning, a patient record?
In a free 30-minute conversation, we will walk through the ten principles against your product and suggest where to start.
