OpenNotes for the Media

About OpenNotes

Based at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), OpenNotes is an academic lab studying, spreading, and teaching transparent communication among patients, care partners, and clinicians.

Our vision is a world in which open, transparent communication is the standard of practice throughout all healthcare settings.

Our team includes clinicians, social scientists, and patient advocates, working together to identify and disseminate best practices for sharing medical information with patients, families and care partners.

BIDMC is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. BIDMC is part of Beth Israel Lahey Health in Boston, MA. Beth Israel Lahey Health brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,000 physicians and 35,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.

Leadership

Catherine (Cait) DesRoches, DrPH

Executive Director

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.