Once 'fringe idea,' doctors warming to patients reading encounter notes, study suggests

For decades, the physician-patient relationship was mostly a one-way street. If you wanted to know what your doctor had put in your records, you usually had to ask them directly, and some might be reluctant to fully disclose their contents. While HIPAA allowed patients easier access to their medical records starting in the late 1990s, patients still received them long after the fact and without interaction with their doctors. However, the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 pushed patient access to medical records into a whole new realm. Patients can not only access their records electronically and often within days of a medical visit, but their physician notes as well. Moreover, the JAMA Open study, authored by doctors and researchers from Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the University of Massachusetts, UCLA, the University of Washington and the Steele Institute for Health Innovation, concludes that the attitudes of the past may be fading away. Aside from the nearly three-quarters of clinicians who said note sharing was a good idea, the same number, 74% of those who knew their notes were being read, said it was a good way to engage patients in their care. Altogether, 1,628 clinicians practicing at three different health systems, 58% of whom are doctors, were queried through a web-based survey conducted between May and August 2018.