Health Care’s Model T? How Providing Patients with Access to Their Visit Notes Can Help Transform an Industry, as Discussed in Today’s Annals of Internal Medicine
Today, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a Perspective paper on OpenNotes, a Pioneer-supported demonstration and evaluation project in which more than 100 primary care physicians are inviting more than 25,000 patients to read their visit notes through secure electronic patient portals. We first covered the news of this project when it launched in June, and have been thrilled with the subsequent discussions that have been advanced since then by those at the forefront of the patient empowerment movement.
Our hope is that the concept behind OpenNotes eventually is embraced by more than just the usual set of early adopters of Health 2.0 technologies and ideas. Today’s Annals paper discusses just how transformative OpenNotes can be to every patient, not just those who are already sold on tracking their own health and health care data. And with a large, diverse pool of participants – more than 25,000 patients working with 100 primary care physicians in three states are gaining access to their medical encounter notes – we should get a solid feel for how the data is being utilized by both “e-patients” and “traditional” patients once the study is complete.
Additionally, we hope the conclusions drawn from OpenNotes will begin an evidence-based discussion on how every patient can best exploit the “hidden core of health records” to improve the quality of their care. As project lead Dr. Tom Delbanco so wonderfully summarizes in the Annals paper, “OpenNotes poses many questions and probably represents the Model-T stage of the future.” In other words, it is a subtle system tweak that may have the potential to revolutionize how business is conducted throughout an entire industry.
The options of how increased access to one’s own visit notes can influence care in the future are fascinating to consider. One of the more intriguing ideas advanced by Dr. Delbanco and his colleagues in the Annals paper include having both patients and their doctors sign notes jointly, indicating their agreement on the content. This could then be turned into a “quality of care contract,” complete with trackable metrics and quantifiable outcomes.
But before we get to this point, the exact benefits of providing patient access to visit notes must be weighed against the risks. That’s exactly what OpenNotes seeks to explore – the potential concerns of both patients and primary care physicians – in order to deliver an evidence base that doesn’t currently exist. Then, only after examining this evidence base, can it be determined whether the concept can be scaled-up successfully.
What do you think about the potential providing this information has to transform health and health care? Are there any concerns that you think should be accounted for? Watch Dr. Delbanco and colleagues explain the project in his own words above, then add your thoughts by taking the Annals Physicians Open Notes Perspective Survey or leaving a comment below.
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