OpenNotes is a demonstration and evaluation project exploring what happens when the medical record becomes far more transparent than in the past. Through their health systems' secure websites, primary care doctors are inviting their patients to read the notes they write about them following visits, e-mail correspondence, or phone conversations. More than 100 doctors and 20,000 patients are participating.
The study is being conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston,Geisinger Health System and its primary care practices in rural Pennsylvania, andHarborview Medical Center in Seattle. It is supported by a major grant from theRobert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneer Portfolio, supplemented by grants from the Drane Family Fund, the Koplow Family Foundation, and the Katz Family Foundation.
In the July 20, 2010 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, the OpenNotes investigators published a Perspective: "OpenNotes: Doctors and Patients Signing On."It explores in some detail the issues our project addresses. On December 20, 2011, the OpenNotes baseline, pre-intervention findings were published, also in the Annals, in a paper entitled, "Inviting Patients to Read Their Doctors' Notes: Patients and Doctors Look Ahead." The Annals is kindly providing both the Perspective articleand the baseline findings paper free on its website.
