Viewing your lab results online in Belgium

Your blood has been taken and you'd like to see the results yourself. In Belgium you can, online, in a few places. In this article you'll find where your lab results live, how to log in, and why a result sometimes takes a little while to appear.

Who sees your results first?

Your results go first to the doctor who ordered the blood test. That's deliberate: your doctor sees them first and can talk them through with you. Only then do they become visible to you online, usually after a short wait. More on that below.

My Health: your central gateway

My Health (Mijn Gezondheid in Dutch, Ma Santé in French) is the national portal where you view your health data online. You'll find it at www.myhealth.belgium.be.

How to log in:

with your eID card and a card reader;
with the itsme app on your smartphone;
with the MyGov.be app;
with a one-time security code from an app.

How to find your results:

Log in to My Health.
Open the section with your reports and results.
There you'll find reports, lab results, X-ray images and discharge letters shared by hospitals and labs.

Sometimes you're taken to the portal of a regional health network along the way. That's normal: it's where your results are kept.

The regional health networks

Hospitals and labs share results through regional networks, also called hubs. The hubs are linked to each other, so through one hub you can also see results held by another.

Flanders: CoZo and MyNexuzHealth. Once you've logged in to CoZo, you see the results shared with you straight away.
Wallonia: Réseau Santé Wallon. You log in with your eID and a card reader, with itsme, or with a username, password and a security code sent by email.
Brussels: Brussels Health Network (Abrumet). You log in with your eID and a card reader, or with itsme.

Through these networks, the people caring for you share your data with each other based on your informed consent. You can withdraw that consent at any time.

Through your lab

Some labs offer their own route as well. Labo Maenhout, for example, uses LabDirect: you get an email as soon as your results are ready, and your doctor can add a note of explanation. It's worth asking at your blood draw whether your lab offers something similar.

Why can't you see your result yet?

A result that isn't online yet is not a bad sign. There are a few ordinary reasons:

The waiting period is still running. At CoZo it's usually 1 day for lab results and mostly 7 days for letters and reports. Each hospital and lab decides for itself, so elsewhere it can take longer. At Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, for example, your lab results become visible after 7 days.
The result isn't complete yet. Some tests take longer, and a result only goes online once it has been validated.
Not everything is shared automatically. The hospital or lab that produced a document decides whether patients can read it online.
The institution isn't connected. Then the result doesn't reach the network.

Want your results sooner, or can't find something? Ask your doctor. They have them first and can go through them with you right away.

Reading your results

Online you see the same table as on paper: a name, a number, a unit and a reference range, with the odd asterisk. An asterisk is a reason to talk, not a diagnosis. Blood test results explained walks you through the most common lines.

Conclusion

In Belgium you'll find your lab results online through My Health, through your regional health network, or sometimes through your lab. You log in with your eID, itsme or another secure method. Result not there yet? Usually the waiting period is still running, so your doctor can see it first. Talk through what you see with your GP. And if you have your report as a PDF, Synapse reads your values and explains them in plain language.