Barking up the right tree: OpenNotes launches canine initiative! “Extending open notes to include our canine companions is a natural progression of our mission to promote transparency and patient engagement in healthcare,” said Dr. Catherine M. DesRoches, Executive Director of OpenNotes. “By giving dog owners a sniff of their pet’s medical records, we’re not just fetching information; we’re fetching better care for our beloved companions.”
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New curriculum helps medical students learn bias-free language for clinical notes
Novel “open notes” curriculum prepares next generation of learners to employ clinical notes as a tool to communicate with patients. Using a multipart approach, the curriculum is designed to prepare the next generation of learners to employ clinical notes as a tool to communicate with patients and providers, and introduces key ethical considerations on how documentation can enhance or harm therapeutic relationships with patients.
A patient-centered documentation skills curriculum for preclerkship medical students in an open notes era
We developed this session for first-year medical students within their foundational clinical skills course to place bias-free language at the forefront of how they learn to construct a medical note. While the longitudinal impact remains to be seen, it is clear patient-centered documentation skills should be an integral part of documentation education.
OpenNotes Opens Door to Expanded Partnerships: New Lab Works Toward Clinician, Patient-Centered Healthcare AI
Drawing upon 15 years of advocacy and research, OpenNotes unveiled today the OpenNotes Lab, the organization’s new effort to explore novel approaches to investigating and designing interventions across the realms of clinical documentation, medical records and patient safety and engagement.
Family perception of OpenNotes in the neonatal intensive care unit
At the end of the NICU discharge education, completed in the patient portal before discharge, families were offered an anonymous survey on OpenNotes. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on NICU families’ perceptions of OpenNotes, which indicated positive interactions with the doctors’ daily progress notes and gave important suggestions for improvement.
Pediatric open notes: Caregiver experiences since the 21st century Cures Act
While research on the impact of Open Notes in pediatric inpatient settings remains limited, recent findings have improved our understanding by adding actual caregiver experiences to the expectations identified in our initial study. As we move into this new era of transparency, we call for further investigation of the impact of note sharing on health care outcomes for children while continuing to develop strategies to mitigate challenges.
Adolescent access to clinicians’ notes: Adolescent, parent, and clinician perspectives
This study aims to identify adolescent, parent, and clinician perspectives on the anticipated benefits and concerns of giving adolescents access to clinicians’ notes and strategies to support note-sharing in this population. These strategies may reinforce the potential benefits and mitigate the challenges of sharing notes with adolescent patients.
Odds of “Loop closures” 20% higher for patients with portal accounts, 40% higher for note-readers
“After controlling for sociodemographic and clinical factors, the odds of a loop closure were 20% higher in tests or referrals for patients with a portal account, and 40% higher in tests or referrals for note readers, compared with those not registered for the patient portal,” said Dr. Bell, lead author for the study.
From fringe idea to federal regulation: New applications of open notes
OpenNotes has evolved since the first published study over a decade ago. Dr. DesRoches says the focus now is on enhancing the patient experience and ensuring that technology, like predictive and generative AI, is leveraged to address challenges related to diverse patient populations. Importantly, she asks, “how might we share documentation in a way that ensures success for patients, families, and clinicians?”
Do patients who read visit notes on the patient portal have a higher rate of “loop closure” on diagnostic tests and referrals in primary care? A retrospective cohort study
Compared to no portal registration, the odds of loop closure were 20% higher in tests/referrals for patients with a portal account, and 40% higher in tests/referrals for note readers, after controlling for sociodemographic and clinical factors. However, important safety gaps from unclosed loops remain, requiring additional engagement strategies.