3Qs: Patients' access to doctors' notes examined
November 20, 2012 by Lauren Dibble in Health
Law professor Michael Meltsner discusses the impact of a recent study that sought to determine the effect of allowing patients to review their doctors’ notes after a visit.
In a pilot study called OpenNotes, more than 100 primary-care physicians volunteered to invite more than 20,000 patients to review their doctors' notes following an office visit to determine the effects of facilitating that access. The results of the study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in October, found that a majority of patients felt more in control of their care, adhered to medication prescriptions and wanted the program to continue.
We asked Michael Meltsner, the George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor in Northeastern's School of Law, who participated in the study and wrote an accompanying editorial, to discuss the study and issues of transparency around patients' medical records.
What information are patients legally entitled to? How easily accessible is this information?
Patients are legally entitled to their records but access to them is difficult. Obstacles are put in their way by healthcare personnel, many of whom aren't used to sharing the records or knowing just where they can be located. All too often, patients give up the quest in frustration. But there is now a growing national movement for doctors to open their notes to patients. Recent research concludes that fears patients will be confused by what they are told or that doctors will have to waste valuable time writing and discussing their notes are overblown.
Why are some doctors and medical professionals viewed as being resistant to full transparency? Does transparency put them at any legal risk?
I think it's less fear of liability than a sense that patients won't know what to do with the information that doctors often feel they are writing for other doctors, rather than the patient. There may also be anxiety that the physician will lose some control and be subject to nagging questions about the treatment and the patient's medical history. But patients overwhelmingly want to see these records when they are given the chance and once healthcare providers realize this, arrangements that facilitate sharing information are inevitable.
How does full transparency and access to medical information benefit patients? Does the healthcare system as a whole benefit?
I tried to summarize the complicated answers to these questions in my October editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine, but my summary response is that information is usually valuable, especially if you believe that individuals have to play a role in their own development, care and treatment. Patients, for example, often suffer selective amnesia after discussing serious issues at an office visit. Having a copy of the doctor's notes allows a ready check of what was said and recommended as well an opportunity to consult over the details with family and friends.
More information: annals.org/article… leid=1363511
Provided by
Northeastern University
-
3Qs: Many questions remain in meningitis outbreak
Oct 18, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
A new kind of pub crawl
Aug 24, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Website takes voters beyond the political frenzy
Aug 23, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
3Qs: For broader education, the play's the thing
Aug 21, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Tracking America's physical activity, via smartphone
Jun 19, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Youth who have their first drink during puberty have higher levels of later drinking
Research shows that the earlier the age at which youth take their first alcoholic drink, the greater the risk of developing alcohol problems. Thus, age at first drink (AFD) is generally considered a powerful predictor of ...
Health
13 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
British MPs concerned about parliamentary boozing
One quarter of British lawmakers believe there is an "unhealthy" drinking culture in the Houses of Parliament, according to a survey published on Friday.
Health
18 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Patient openness to research can depend on race and sex of study personnel
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found that the race and sex of study personnel can influence a patient's decision on whether or not to participate in clinical research.
Health
19 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Clinical support for patient self-management is rhetoric rather than reality
The processes to allow people to self-manage their own illness are not being used appropriately by health professionals to the benefit of their patients, new research suggests.
Health
19 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Control of heart disease risk factors varies among outpatient practices
Control of heart disease risk factors varies widely among outpatient practices, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013.
Health
20 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
AIDS science at 30: 'Cure' now part of lexicon
Big names in medicine are set to give an upbeat assessment of the war on AIDS on Tuesday, 30 years after French researchers identified the virus that causes the disease.
For combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, 'fear circuitry' in the brain never rests
Chronic trauma can inflict lasting damage to brain regions associated with fear and anxiety. Previous imaging studies of people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, have shown that these brain regions can over-or ...
Melon focus headband turns to Kickstarter for rollout plans
(Medical Xpress)—What if the quality of your work depends more on your focus on the piano keys or canvas or laptop than your musical or painting or computing skills? If target users can be convinced, they ...
Temporal processing in the olfactory system
The neural machinery underlying our olfactory sense continues to be an enigma for neuroscience. A recent review in Neuron seeks to expand traditional ideas about how neurons in the olfactory bulb might encode information about ...
Now we know why old scizophrenia medicine works on antibiotics-resistant bacteria
In 2008 researchers from the University of Southern Denmark showed that the drug thioridazine, which has previously been used to treat schizophrenia, is also a powerful weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as ...
Individuals who drink heavily and smoke may show 'early aging' of the brain
Treatment for alcohol use disorders works best if the patient actively understands and incorporates the interventions provided in the clinic. Multiple factors can influence both the type and degree of neurocognitive abnormalities ...