This article reviews the key aspects of confidentiality protections in adolescent health care, explains the ONC Rule, outlines clinical, HIT, and equity challenges associated with its implementation, encourages the development of policies protecting the confidentiality of adolescents’ EHI [ … ] and offers tools for analyzing key questions in individual cases and practical steps to address the confidentiality of EHI with patients and parents.
Editorial / Commentary
Access to records: Do open notes work for patients?
Since 2021, Americans have been guaranteed full and immediate access to their own health records. Joanne Silberner asks if this has helped or hindered treatment.
The Voice of the Patient and the Electronic Health Record
The patient’s voice […] and their preferences for care and its outcomes, is too small a part of the electronic health record (EHR). If you are a researcher or innovator, collaborate with patient groups and clinicians to create new ways to capture the patient voice, and to leverage it for good.
A Patient-Centered Approach to Writing Ambulatory Visit Notes in the Cures Act Era
Most note-writing guides to date have focused on the experience of clinicians. Here, we build on these tips by integrating patient perspectives related to note-reading.
Patient access to full general practice health records
Researchers in the UK say patients have little choice but to be more self-reliant due to overwhelming demands on the health system. Ready online access to full health records could help and may also reduce demand.
Open notes in patient care: confining deceptive placebos to the past?
In some countries, the practice of “open notes” is advanced with patients using online portals to access their clinical records. In this report, the authors reflect on the consequences of access for placebo prescribing, particularly for the common practice of deceptive placebo use, in which patients are not aware they are being offered a placebo.
Shared Access to Patient Portals for Older Adults: Implications for Privacy and Digital Health Equity
This viewpoint article discusses challenges and opportunities of systematic engagement of care partners through shared access to the patient portal that have been amplified in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak and recent implementation of federal information blocking rules to promote information transparency alongside broader shifts toward care delivery innovation and population aging. We describe implementation considerations and the promise of granular, role-based privacy controls in addressing the nuanced and dynamic nature of individual information sharing preferences and fostering person- and family-centered care delivery.
Sharing Clinical Notes Potential Medical-Legal Benefits and Risks
It is possible that greater mutual understanding and strengthened patient-physician communication could promote better health outcomes and reduce patients’ inclination to litigate even when medical errors do arise. Verifying the potential effects of sharing clinical notes on malpractice liability risks will require thorough study and monitoring.
The US opened up access to health records—how do patients use them?
Since April, the US has required healthcare providers to allow patients full access to their medical records—a milestone in a decades-long effort by a group of researchers and patients. Joanne Silberner examines the impact so far, and whether concerns have been borne out
Co-development of OurDX—an online tool to facilitate patient and family engagement in the diagnostic process
Patients and their care partners are usually the first to notice new or changing symptoms and are the connecting “thread” between different healthcare encounters. In this article Sigall Bell, Fabienne Bourgeois, Stephen Liu, and Eric Thomas—along with patient partners Betsy Lowe and Liz Salmi—describe the co-development of an online tool called “OurDX” (Our Diagnosis) to engage patients and families in the diagnostic process
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