Catherine M. DesRoches, DrPH

Key Publications

Perspectives of Patients About Immediate Access to Test Results Through an Online Patient Portal, JAMA Open

Shared Access to Patient Portals for Older Adults: Implications for Privacy and Digital Health Equity, JMIR Aging

The Views and Experiences of Clinicians Sharing Medical Record Notes With Patients, JAMA Open

Google Scholar

Executive Director, OpenNotes & Principal Investigator, OpenNotes Lab

Catherine (Cait) M. DesRoches, DrPH, MSc, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a health policy and data nerd with expertise in emerging trends in health care delivery. Cait noticed early in her career that the concerns of patients and their families are often not the same as those of clinicians and policymakers. Bringing this patient and family voice into the world of health services research led directly to her current role as the Director of OpenNotes. She is the Principal Investigator of the OpenNotes Lab–which designs, evaluates, and guides innovations in clinical documentation, medical records, and patient engagement–and the Program Director for the Keane OpenNotes Fellowship in Patient Engagement and Transparency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

Cait earned her bachelor’s degree from Emmanuel College in 1991, and her Master of Science, in public health, from the University of Massachusetts. In 2000, Cait completed her doctorate in public health at Columbia University. Prior to joining the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Division of General Medicine, she held faculty and research positions at Harvard Medical School, Simmons College, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Cait came to OpenNotes from Mathematica Policy Research, where she was a Senior Survey Researcher and Senior Fellow.