Lam B, Bourgeois F, DesRoches C, et al. Attitudes, experiences, and safety behaviours of adolescents and young adults who read visit notes: Opportunities to engage patients early in their care. Future Healthc J. November 2021.
doi: https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0118
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.
