OpenNotes for the Media

About OpenNotes

OpenNotes is an international movement spreading, studying, and teaching about transparent communication among patients, families, and clinicians. When clinical notes are shared with patients, we call these ‘open notes.’ We are motivated by evidence indicating that when health professionals offer patients and families ready access to clinical notes, the quality and safety of care improves.

OpenNotes is not-for-profit and is funded entirely by federal and philanthropic grants and gifts. Based at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a major Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, OpenNotes does not develop software and is not a technology company.

OpenNotes and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are part of Beth Israel Lahey Health in Boston, MA. Beth Israel Lahey Health is a new health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,000 physicians and 35,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education. For more information, visit www.bilh.org.

Media Contacts

OpenNotes handles media inquiries, public affairs, and outreach, as well as informational requests and social media needs.

Amanda Norris, MDiv

Project Strategist, OpenNotes, Department of General Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
anorris@bidmc.harvard.edu

Chloe Meck

Media Relations Manager, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Cell: 617-667-7367

Terri Janos

Media Relations Manager, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
617-667-7318

OpenNotes Leadership Bios

Catherine (Cait) DesRoches, DrPH

Executive Director (@cmd418)

Catherine (Cait) is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a health policy and data nerd with expertise in emerging trends in health care delivery. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health, and the Joseph P. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University where she received her doctoral degree, Cait has also held research and faculty positions at Mathematica Policy Research, Simmons College School of Social Work, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Tom Delbanco, MD

Co-Founder, OpenNotes

Tom Delbanco, MD, is the John F. Keane & Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Educated at Harvard College and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr Delbanco trained in internal medicine at Bellevue, Harlem, and Presbyterian Hospitals in New York. Following military service, he came to Boston where, until 2002, he was Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a unit he founded and led for more than 30 years. At the former Beth Israel Hospital, Dr Delbanco created one of the first primary care practice and teaching programs at an academic health center, and in 1979 he developed and led the Harvard Medical School Faculty Development and Fellowship Program that has now prepared more than 300 general internists for academic careers.

Janice Walker, RN, MBA

Co-Founder, OpenNotes

Jan Walker, RN, MBA, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the research faculty in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Her primary research interests are in patients’ perspective on care, the use of information technologies to improve their experience, and strategies to reorganize and improve primary care practice.

Liz Salmi

Communications & Patient Initiatives Director (@TheLizArmy)

Liz Salmi is Communications & Patient Initiatives Director for OpenNotes at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. In this role, Liz aims to better understand the changing nature of patient-clinician communication in an age of increasing health information transparency. She does this by working alongside clinicians, hospitals, health systems, researchers, and most importantly, in partnership with patient advocates. Over the last 15 years Liz has been: a research subject; an advisor in patient stakeholder groups; a leader in “patient engagement” research initiatives; and an innovator, educator and investigator in national educational and research projects. Today her work focuses on involving patients and care partners in the co-design of research and research dissemination.