Beth Israel opens electronic doctors' notes to patients

Many doctors would cringe if they thought patients were going to read the honest, uncensored notes captured in the patients' electronic medical records. Some would probably refuse to participate, arguing that patients won't understand medical terms, might worry about screening tests and could take offense when reading blunt comments. 

But at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, they're going to take that chance. At BIDMC, they're beginning a project called "open notes" which will expose medical notes from about 100 doctors at the hospital for one year. That means about 25,000 to 35,000 patients will be able to read the notes, which will become part of their online medical record. The project is sponsored by a $1.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Researchers behind the project hypothesize that patients who read the notes will better understand their physicians' instructions and treatment plan, discover errors in their chart and remember more of what they were told. Naysayers, meanwhile, suggest that doctors will begin keeping "shadow notes" that patients don't see to avoid personal conflict. By the end of the project, researchers should have a better sense of who is right.

To learn more about this project:
- read this piece from The Boston Globe

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