by Eileen Hughes I was 20 years old when a new doctor I had just started seeing for my recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes told me that his job was to help me learn more about diabetes, but ultimately it was my disease to manage. It was my choice to take insulin, to watch…
patient engagement
Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Providers Want Patients to Read Medical Records, Spot Errors
Health-care providers are giving patients more access to their medical records so they can help spot and correct errors and omissions. Studies show errors can occur on as many as 95% of the medication lists found in patient medical records. Errors include outdated data and omissions that many patients could readily identify, including prescription drugs…
Wisconsin State Journal: Health Sense: More patients able to see doctors’ notes
In a classic “Seinfeld” episode, Elaine Benes learns that her medical chart says she is “difficult” because she refused to wear a paper exam gown. Her efforts to resolve the situation aggravate doctors, leaving her with an untreated rash. In the real world, where medical charts are increasingly electronic, some providers have started sharing doctor notes with patients.…
Dr. Tom Delbanco on The Diane Rehm Show: New Efforts to Make Doctors’ Notes Easily Accessible to Patients
Listen to Dr. Tom Delbanco and a panel of clinicians and consumers discuss OpenNotes on the Diane Rehm Show. By law, most patients have the right to access their medical records. But obtaining them can be time-consuming and expensive. A growing number of health advocates are pushing to give patients easy electronic access to physicians’…
Washington Post: Pilot at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess gives patients electronic access to therapists’ notes
For years, the woman went to a Boston hospital to talk to a therapist about being depressed and overweight. The therapist, listening closely, asked questions and jotted down notes on a memo pad. Until recently, the 54-year-old woman didn’t know what her therapist was writing. Then, last month, her therapist offered to share his notes…
Blue Button use by patients to access and share health record information using the Department of Veterans Affairs’online patient portal
Objective
The Blue Button feature of online patient portals promotes patient engagement by allowing patients to easily download their personal health information. This study examines the adoption and use of the Blue Button feature in the Department of Veterans Affairs’(VA) personal health record portal, My HealtheVet.
Materials and methods
An online survey presented to a 4% random sample of My HealtheVet users between March and May 2012. Questions were designed to determine characteristics associated with Blue Button use, perceived value of use, and how Veterans with non-VA providers use the Blue Button to share information with their non-VA providers.
We Can Do Better: Northwest patients to gain easy access to clinicians’ notes
Regional collaboration spurs first widespread adoption of the OpenNotes initiative Portland, Ore. – A unique regional collaboration among nine prominent health systems and medical groups in the Northwest will provide more than one million patients in Oregon and Southwest Washington with electronic access to the notes their providers include in medical records. This marks the first…
Boston Globe: Doctors’ notes on mental health shared with patients
Policy shift at Beth Israel Deaconess At the end of every workday, psychiatrists, social workers, and other mental health providers write notes describing their patients’ visits. It is where they chronicle paranoid behavior, excessive drinking, or relationship problems. These candid comments often are available to other doctors, but they are rarely shared with patients themselves.…
Join Us! Help make @MyOpenNotes the Norm!
On April 8, we will hit a new milestone with the number of patients across the country who will soon have access to the medical notes written by their clinicians. Help us make open notes the norm by joining our first Thunderclap! Thunderclap is a great tool that allows us all to share a message on social…
OpenNotes: Putting Medical Record Transparency to the Test
Many health experts see “consumer engagement” as a key to improving quality and lowering costs. But how to get people to be more actively involved in their own care has vexed these same experts for years. Computers have unquestionably made things easier by enabling individuals, with a few clicks, to delve deeply into whatever health…
