BOSTON – October 4, 2024 – At the heart of the OpenNotes movement is the belief that patients, informed by their health information and open communication, have the right to make decisions about their care in partnership with clinicians.
The Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, along with the onslaught of some individual state regulations criminalizing both patients and clinicians involved in reproductive health care, strips patients and clinicians of the ability to have private, open, and honest conversations about difficult reproductive decisions, leading to disastrous consequences for patients, families, and those who care for them.
We stand with our partners in healthcare in condemning the Dobbs decision to deny people the basic human right to make choices about their own care. And we support the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ASTP/ONC) efforts to provide regulatory clarification and protections for those patients and their clinicians whereby “information blocking exceptions for electronic health information (EHI) related to reproductive health care during interoperable exchanges” should be allowed.
Catherine M. DesRoches, DrPH
Executive Director, OpenNotes
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School
