Learning Collaboratives

Why learning collaboratives?

Despite rapid growth, considerable work remains for the OpenNotes team. In the fall of 2020, fewer than 15% of Americans are offered easy access to clinical notes, and OpenNotes estimates that roughly 10-12% of U.S. health care organizations offer patients such access through an online portal.

Evidence suggests many of these organizations have few patients reading their notes. We have learned that nominal access to patient portals through electronic health records (EHR) is not sufficient to meet patient needs.

Through partnerships created by the National OpenNotes Learning Collaboratives, we work to establish and spread best practices for helping patients and providers better understand the value of reading notes. Robust implementation requires both that patients can easily access this information and that clinicians actively encourage them to read them…and share them, as needed, with care partners.

Open notes appear to send a strong message about transparency and inclusivity, and patients often report that they trust their clinicians more.

Resulting publications

Open Notes in Oncology: Patient versus Oncology Clinician Views Cancer Cell (2020)

Improving Patient Access to Notes on Patient Portals OpenNotes white paper (2018)

Learning Collaborative foci

Learning collaborative topics were chosen based on interest from the OpenNotes community, or as areas in need of further research. The current collaborative focus is on:

Mental Health
Oncology & Open Results
Patient/Family Advisory Councils
Pediatrics and Adolescents
Writing Better Notes

The learning collaboratives operate separately, and activities may involve:

Serving as a conduit for inter-network communication
Creating toolkits, learning curricula, and resource directories for potential adopters
Offering learning opportunities focused on best practices for implementation
Nurturing informal advisory channels to generate collective commitment to change