In a conversation with Danny van Leeuwen, Peter Elias, M.D., describes what I would call a “slippery slope” experience that took him from traditional to highly engaged practice 20+ years ago. Inspired by a question from a patient’s wife and a suggestion from a colleague, Elias developed a process for immediately sharing clinical notes with […]
Tommy Korn, M.D., an ophthalmologist in San Diego, recently came to my attention through a tweet from OpenNotes (@myopennotes): We love to see examples of clinicians doing #opennotes well! Check out how @TommyKornMD handles note sharing! Clear, affirming, engaging and patient-centered. The tweet links to Dr. Korn’s LinkedIn page, where he offers a sample (and […]
A new framework developed by Boston-based researchers categorizes patient-reported problems in a way that can be used by health care providers and organizations to better understand errors in diagnoses that are unique to the ambulatory setting, where the majority of missed or delayed diagnoses occur. Recognizing that patients and family caregivers have a unique perspective […]
Editor’s note: This article was first published in Patient Safety Beat, newsletter of the Betsy Lehman Center. New, more comprehensive research confirms earlier findings that patients who access clinical notes of ambulatory care visits – “open notes” – often spot errors in their electronic health records. And there are indications from additional research that people […]
Editor’s Note: OpenNotes has grown from a pilot program involving 20,000 patients in 2010 to an evidence-based approach that offered direct access to clinical visit notes to more than 40 million patients in the United States and Canada in 2019. The program, which is headquartered at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, describes itself […]
A few weeks ago, I reported on a national survey that measured patient use of internet portals that give patients access to their electronic medical records. I also reflected on my own experience with online access to personal health information. Recently, OpenNotes, a movement that advocates and facilities patient access to their clinicians’ visit notes,* […]
To say “I had a few questions” after learning I had a brain tumor is an understatement. Born on the cusp between Generation X and the Millennials, my instinctual response as a patient—after posting a hospital selfie to Instagram, of course—is to Google every new medical term I encounter. For the most part, I find […]
Before I joined OpenNotes, I worked at Health Care For All, one of the country’s leading consumer healthcare advocacy non-profits. I was part of a team, which included volunteers, that successfully advocated for a law requiring all Massachusetts hospitals to establish Patient and Family Advisory Councils (or PFACs). Such councils exist in thousands of U.S. […]
Editor’s Note: Editor’s Note: In seven years, OpenNotes has grown from a pilot program of 20,000 patients at three U.S. health systems to an international movement of more than 16.5 million patients. Last week, Engaging Patients published a post by Macda Gerard, a medical student and OpenNotes research assistant. To add a bit more context, […]
I’m one of more than 17 million Americans who now have access to the visit notes my doctors write after my appointments with them. Here’s what I want my doctors to know: I’m a good listener – really, I am – but when I read my visit notes, I realize that I miss a lot […]