Reading clinician notes helps patients catch errors, remember what was said, feel more in control, and take charge of their health. Here’s why reading notes matters.
Learn More: FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS FOR PATIENTS
OpenNotes News and Research
This issue brief summarizes the activities and learnings of the Coalition for Care Partners around shared access. Research has spanned from 2019 to 2025, including the formation of the Shared Access Learning Collaborative. The Coalition offers recommendations for policymakers, clinical leadership, patients, and care partners.
This article presents an analysis of how artificial intelligence (AI)–generated medical responses are perceived and evaluated by nonexperts. The increased trust placed in inappropriate AI-generated medical advice can lead to misdiagnosis.
This single-center, cross-sectional observational study highlights low patient portal utilization among hospitalized patients and disparities in access based on race/ethnicity, gender, age, and insurance status.
As shared access uptake remains low, the Coalition for Care Partners, and three healthcare delivery organizations, co-designed an initiative promoting shared access to the patient portals of older adults.
Can AI chatbots help patients make sense of their medical notes? This first-of-its-kind study published in JAMIA Open finds that with the right prompt, large language models may become powerful partners in understanding complex health information.
A new study found that patients often refresh the portal while awaiting test results—especially for routine tests. This behavior is linked to increased messaging, suggesting that individual worry may drive communication more than the test itself.
In a recent BMJ opinion, OpenNotes leaders warn that a proposal by U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eliminate public comment in federal health policymaking threatens transparency, public trust, and democratic values.
This study aimed to implement a novel patient portal–based intervention to identify, engage, and support care partners in clinical settings. Early results suggest that the intervention could be an easily scalable and adaptable method of identifying and supporting care partners in clinical settings.
In this quality improvement study of 16,005 patients from 3 diverse US sites, new shared access registration was unchanged; however, use of shared access functionality among registered care partners increased. Care partners logged in more frequently, viewed more laboratory results and clinical notes, and scheduled more visits after the demonstration.
About OpenNotes
OpenNotes is an international movement advocating for greater transparency in healthcare. Through research, innovation, and education, we identify and disseminate best practices for sharing medical information with patients and their care partners.
What is an open note?
When a doctor or other healthcare professional shares their documentation with a patient, it becomes an “open note.” Notes are the story of a person’s health care, and connects other elements in the medical record.
OpenNotes in action
OpenNotes is motivated by evidence indicating that when health professionals offer patients and families ready access to clinical notes, the quality and safety of care improves.
Learn more about our current projects.
- U.S. RESEARCH Engaging family care partners through shared access to the electronic health record.
- OPENNOTES LAB OpenNotes Lab works toward clinician, patient-centered healthcare AI
- U.S. RESEARCH The OurDiagnosis (OurDX) Project is an online tool that searches for potential diagnostic breakdowns in ambulatory care.
- U.S. RESEARCH Teaching medical students to offer open and transparent communication.
How do patients and clinicians use open notes?
When a clinician shares a note with a patient, It becomes an “open note.” Notes are the story of a person’s health care and connects with other elements in their medical records.
- FOR PATIENTS How to get the most out of your notes
- FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS Sharing notes with patients: the basics
- FOR PATIENTS How to read an open note
- FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS Open notes for mental health clinicians
- FOR PATIENTS How to use notes to help someone else
- FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS Sharing notes with care partners
Except where otherwise noted, the content by OpenNotes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
