With the advent of EHRs, mobile health products, telehealth services, and other health IT innovations, it comes as no surprise that physicians have also provided patients with electronic access to their written notes.
The OpenNotes study started in 2011 and immediately showed patients feel better about and are more likely to adhere to their medications after given the opportunity to view doctors’ notes. The results published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal show that the majority of patients — almost 12,000 out of about 13,500 participants — opened at least one note during the study. Additionally, at least 60 percent of patients on medication reported greater prescribed drug adherence while around 80 percent of participants stated they exhibited greater control of their care.
After the first successful run of OpenNotes, the researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center decided to attempt a pilot program that allowed certain patients to view psychiatric notes, 90.9wbur reported.
In general, there has been a greater movement toward allowing patients to see their medical records, which has clearly spurred these OpenNotes projects. The next step the researchers are working on is to allow patients to comment and add annotations to their health records.
Think of it this way: the latest OpenNotes program will allow patients to collaborate with doctors in a similar way to coworkers who contribute toward a project through Google Docs. The researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess obtained a $450,000 grant from The Commonwealth Fund and plan to create a new interface that allows patients to comment on their own medical records.
Read Vera Gruessner’s full article on EHR Intelligence.com.
