December 10, 2012 – You’ve heard the old adage that records are made to be broken. How about a new one: Records are made to be shared. Did you ever see that episode of “Seinfeld” where Elaine goes to great lengths (and beyond) to see what her doctor is writing about her in her medical chart? Well, it’s funny…
patient engagement
American Academy of Family Physicians Opinion: Why I Let My Patients See My Notes
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has dedicated $1.5 million to find out whether giving 25,000 patients access to the notes written by their 100 primary care physicians is a good thing. I can offer some perspective on this subject – for free – based on around 125,000 patient encounters over 25 years by one primary care…
Fox: Sharing the Doctor’s Note: Win for Patients and Physicians
By Barbara Mannino, October 25, 2012 Quick: when was your last tetanus shot? What was the date of your last surgery? What medications and dosage are you taking? Does cancer run in the family? It can be hard to accurately remember your entire medical history, but thankfully our medical records, including doctor’s office-visit notes, provide…
Consumer Reports: Patient access to their doctor’s notes leads to better care, study finds
Are you interested in reading the medical notes your doctor writes about you? Some ten thousand patients around the country recently had that chance. And both they, and their doctors, said it led to better care. More than 100 doctors in Boston, Seattle, and Danville, Pa., participated in the study, called OpenNotes, which was published…
Forbes: Historic Day in Opening Doctor’s Notes
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” – Arthur Schopenhauer German philosopher (1788 – 1860) The transition from “Open Notes” being a fringe concept to being self-evident is rapidly taking place catalyzed by a recently released study on Open Notes.…
The Atlantic: Would You Want to See Everything Your Doctor Writes About You?
Let’s say you gained a bit of weight since your last physical. You know it, deep down at least, but you don’t really want to talk about. You’ve convinced yourself that it’s just a phase. It’s one thing to have your doctor point it out to you in the exam room. But what if, at…
The Wall Street Journal: Access to Doctors’ Notes Aids Patients’ Treatment
Patients who have access to doctor’s notes in their medical records are more likely to understand their health issues, recall what the doctor told them and take their medications as prescribed, according to a study published Monday. The study, published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is the culmination of an experiment known as OpenNotes, an effort…
Annals of Internal Medicine: A Patient’s View of OpenNotes
When I was young, most doctors refused to tell terminal patients that nothing more could be done. They would lose hope, the rationalization went. Anxiety or depression would make them suffer more than ignorance. No one, of course, wants to be the messenger of death or face the slippery slope that candor can evoke—painful discussions…
The Boston Globe: Patients benefit from reading doctors’ notes, study shows
by Liz Kowalczyk, Should patients be able to read the notes doctors write about them? Physicians have disagreed about this issue for years. But in a new study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, patients reported that opening up notes increased their understanding of their medical problems and improved their compliance with medication regimens. Despite…
Society for Participatory Medicine: OpenNotes: The results are in. GREAT news for patient engagement.
by Dave deBronkart, Regular readers know that we’ve long anticipated the result of the OpenNotes project. Our first post about it was in June 2010: “OpenNotes” project begins: what happens when patients can see the physician’s visit notes? It tied the issue all the way back to the birth of the Web, in 1994: The opening…
