The 21st Century Cures Act has accelerated adoption of OpenNotes, providing new opportunities for patient and family engagement in their care. However, these regulations present new challenges, particularly for pediatric health systems aiming to improve information sharing while minimizing risks associated with adolescent confidentiality and safety.
Peer Reviewed
Negative Patient Descriptors: Documenting Racial Bias In The Electronic Health Record
We found that Black patients at an urban academic medical center had disproportionately higher odds of negative patient descriptors appearing in the history and physical notes of their EHRs compared with White patients. This difference may indicate implicit racial bias not only among individual providers but also among the broader beliefs and attitudes maintained by the health care system. Such bias has the potential to stigmatize Black patients and possibly compromise their care, raising concerns about systemic racism in health care.
The US opened up access to health records—how do patients use them?
Since April, the US has required healthcare providers to allow patients full access to their medical records—a milestone in a decades-long effort by a group of researchers and patients. Joanne Silberner examines the impact so far, and whether concerns have been borne out
Sharing Clinical Notes and Electronic Health Records With People Affected by Mental Health Conditions: Scoping Review
PAEHRs in MHC may strengthen user involvement, patients’ autonomy, and shift medical treatment to a coproduced process. Acceptance issues among health care professionals align with the findings from general health settings. However, the corpus of evidence on digital sharing of EHRs with people affected by mental health conditions is limited. Above all, further research is needed to examine the clinical effectiveness, efficiency, and implementation of this sociotechnical intervention.
Attitudes, experiences, and safety behaviours of adolescents and young adults who read visit notes: Opportunities to engage patients early in their care
Today’s adolescents and young adults have grown up immersed in technology, but their interest in and benefit from reading their care notes online is not well understood. In our study, the majority of AYA read notes and rated them as extremely important for several engagement and safety behaviours. Although a similar proportion of AYA reported definite or possible errors in their notes as adults, fewer spoke up about them, citing knowledge and cultural barriers like fear of conflict. Taken together, these findings support initiatives that encourage AYA to read notes and share concerns. Efforts that include note-reading may help transition patients from paediatric to adult care with greater autonomy, activation and safety partnership.
Patients Contributing to Visit Notes: Mixed Methods Evaluation of OurNotes
OurNotes interests patients, and providers experience it as a positive intervention. Participation by patients, care partners, clinicians, and electronic health record experts will facilitate further development.
The Value of OpenNotes for Pediatric Patients, Their Families and Impact on the Patient–Physician Relationship
Although limited by relatively low survey response rate, OpenNotes was well-received by parents of pediatric patients without untoward consequences. The main concerns pediatricians raise about OpenNotes proved to not be issues in the pediatric population. Our results demonstrate clear benefits to adoption of OpenNotes. This provides reassurance that the transition to sharing notes with pediatric patients can be successful and value additive.
Filling a gap in safety metrics: development of a patient-centred framework to identify and categorise patient-reported breakdowns related to the diagnostic process in ambulatory care
The PRDB framework, developed in partnership with patients/families, can help organisations identify and reliably categorise PRDBs, including some that are invisible to clinicians; guide interventions to engage patients and families as diagnostic partners; and inform whole organisational learning.
Patient Perceptions of Receiving COVID-19 Test Results via an Online Patient Portal: An Open Results Survey
This study evaluated patient perspectives related to receiving COVID-19 test results via an online patient portal prior to discussion with a clinician. Users found the portal easy to use but expressed mixed preferences about the means of notification of result availability (e.g., email, text, or phone call). Users found immediate access to results useful for managing their health, employment, and family/childcare. Many users shared their results and encouraged others to get tested. Our cohort consisted mostly of non-Hispanic white, highly educated, English-speaking patients. Overall, patients found open results useful for COVID-19 testing and few expressed increased worries from receiving their results via the patient portal.
The benefits and harms of open notes in mental health: A Delphi survey of international experts
This survey used a Delphi poll – an established methodology used to investigate emerging healthcare policy, including in psychiatry. International experts who included health professionals and persons with lived experience of mental healthcare were asked to give their opinions, anonymously, in three rounds of online surveys, and to offer their views about the potential benefits and harms of online access to mental health notes. Experts – drawn from 70 experts from six countries – agreed patients’ access to their mental health notes could offer multiple benefits and few harms.
Except where otherwise noted, the content by OpenNotes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
