by Lori W., patient – BOSTON, MA – When asked if I was interested in writing a blog post for OpenNotes, I immediately said yes. But, it wasn’t long before panic set in. “What’s a blog?”…
Mental Health Notes
Psychiatric Times: Transparent Notes in Psychiatry
Demystification of the psychiatric experience through transparency with documentation can replace anxiety with empowerment. The trend toward transparent documentation has potential for many benefits, yet it remains a provocative concept for the field of psychiatry. The OpenNotes initiative that began with sharing primary care notes online and in real time with patients has proved to…
Reuters Health: Patients, doctors see benefits of sharing medical records
When Stacey Whiteman was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago, she didn’t realize the toughest challenge would be its impact on her brain. The 53-year-old from Massachusetts was forced to quit work as an executive assistant after becoming easily confused and prone to forget, even about priorities like doctor appointments. When her physician suggested…
HealthIT Outcomes: Access To Notes Empowers Patients In Pilot Study
Psychiatry and social work clinicians report positive results from the mental health pilot at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an attempt to measure the use of OpenNotes to share mental health notations with patients. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston – an academic medical center affiliated with Harvard Medical School – employs approximately…
Mental Health Notes Empower Patients
About a year and a half ago, longtime BIDMC patient Stacey Whiteman received shocking news from her physician. “I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in my brain and in my spine,” she said. “Cognitively I am challenged. I can’t multitask anymore. I may look okay on the outside but on the inside, it is challenging, to…
BBC World Service: Clinic lets patients read their therapist’s notes
Would you want to know what your therapist thinks of you? Hundreds of patients with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston are taking part in an experiment where they have full access to their therapist’s notes about them. Most are reporting it’s a good thing. Steve O’Neill is a therapist and one of…
90.9 WBUR: Beth Israel Opens Mental Health Notes To Some Patients
If you’ve ever met with a therapist, you may have wondered what he or she is writing down while you’re speaking. Maybe you’ve even tried to sneak a peek and decipher upside-down handwriting. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is removing that guesswork for some patients. A new pilot program lets carefully selected psychiatric patients read…
Shape: Would You Want to Read Your Therapist’s Notes?
If you’ve ever visited a therapist, you’ve likely experienced this very moment: You spill your heart out, anxiously await a response, and your doc looks down—scribbling into a notebook or tapping away at an iPad. You’re stuck: “What is he writing?!” About 700 patients at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital—part of a preliminary study at…
KPCC: Should Therapists Give Their Patients Access to Mental Health Notes?
At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, therapists are giving mental health patients access to therapy notes and charts, something patients commonly have access to in other fields. The doctors behind the project say that opening mental health records up to patients allows for a more participatory, active, and collaborative therapy practice. Critics argue…
New York Times: What the Therapist Thinks About You
David Baldwin wasn’t sure how he had come across the other day in group therapy at the hospital, near the co-op apartment where he lives with his rescue cat, Zoey. He struggles with bipolar disorder, severe anxiety and depression. Like so many patients, he secretly wondered what his therapist thought of him. But unlike those…
