by Michael Coren, MESc Patients, in theory, can access their own medical records. Yet a thicket of fees, institutional fear, and bureaucracy still stand between most patients and their medical charts. But a new project called OpenNotes suggests there is much to gain and little to fear by sharing medical records with patients as part of treatment. A…
OpenNotes in the Media
When Seeing the Same Physician, Highly Activated Patients Have Better Care Experiences Than Less Activated Patients
By Jessica Greene, PhD, Judith H. Hibbard, PhD, Rebecca Sacks, and Valerie Overton, CNP, RN Patients who have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their health and health care report better health care experiences than patients with lower levels of “activation” who see the same clinicians. Findings from this Commonwealth Fund–supported study suggest that care…
Health IT Buzz: Building Momentum: Expanding Patient Access to Medical Records
By Lygeia Ricciardi, EdM Giving patients (or, more broadly, consumers), easy electronic access to their own health information is a key step in empowering individuals to be more engaged partners in their health and their healthcare, including: coordinating care among multiple providers, making sure medical records are accurate and complete, and using apps and tools…
Open Health News: VHA Joins ‘OpenNotes’ Effort for EHR & PHR Systems
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has joined the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation’s ‘OpenNotes’ initiative as a partner along with other healthcare provider organizations – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, Geisinger Health System, MD Anderson Cancer Center . These organizations are all fully committed to giving patients online access to clinical notes.…
OpenNotes: Hospitalists’ challenge and opportunity
Dr. Henry Feldman and co-authors explore the implications of giving patients on the hospital wards real time access to notes. This article discusses opportunities to use shared visit notes to partner with patients and their caregivers, at the bedside and after discharge. An early view of, “OpenNotes: Hospitalists’ Challenge and Opportunity,” published in the Journal…
KevinMD: Bringing OpenNotes to Geisinger
By Jon Darer Recently, over 520 of our doctors began sharing their office visit notes with patients. All primary care doctors and general pediatricians, and selected physicians within pediatric subspecialties, dermatology, endocrinology, pulmonology, nephrology, rheumatology, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, and women’s health—including obstetrics and gynecology and gynecologic oncology—are participating in OpenNotes. Read Dr Darer’s…
Globe 100 Innovators: Doctor’s notes, demystified
By Cindy Atoji Keene What is the doctor scribbling down in the chart? Many patients have probably wished they could sneak a peak into their medical records. Being able to do so is like a proverbial shot in the arm, said physician Tom Delbanco and Jan Walker, founders of OpenNotes at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.…
EHR Intelligence: EHR open notes: Should parents have access to teens’ PHI?
May 16, 2013 – For most people, adolescence is a time marked by struggle: the lure of adulthood leads to the fight for emancipation from a parent’s control, and from the condemnation or disappointment of authority figures while they explore their own emerging sense of self. Physicians have long been told to be neutral and objective when…
Advisory Board: In Record Time: How an EHR Changed My Patient Experience
I’ll be the first to admit it, I was a bit put off when the receptionist said, “You need to call back the day you’d like to see the doctor.” With such short notice would I even get to see my new family doctor, or would I be triaged to one of his colleagues? Given…
RWJ Pioneer Blog: Why the VA Embraces OpenNotes
Earlier this year, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) embraced OpenNotes, enabling more than 1 million veterans who currently have access to the VA personal health record to view or download their own medical notes along with their health record information via the My HealtheVet Blue Button. In a recently published study in the Journal of Medical…
