John Mafi, MD, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is the lead author of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association that examined the effect of email reminders on whether patients accessed their physician's notes in the OpenNotes program, according to Health Leaders Media.
Here are five observations:
1. Physicians found sharing their notes with patients had little negative impact on their workflow, but Dr. Mafi said the program was anticlimactic with regards to physicians' workflow and their email volume didn't change.
2. Dr. Mafi said the result of all this miscommunication and forgetfulness are low patient engagement, poorly managed chronic conditions, unfilled prescriptions, forgotten medications, bad outcomes and high costs.
3. Between 40 percent and 80 percent of what a healthcare provider tells patients is immediately forgotten, and half of what they do remember, they get wrong.
4. Today, more than 5 million patients are participating in OpenNotes, and recently, four nonprofits contributed a total of $10 million to expand the program to 50 million patients.
5. OpenNotes is a national initiative working to give patients access to the visit notes written by their physicians, nurses or other clinicians. OpenNotes began in 2010 when 105 primary care physicians invited nearly 14,000 of their patients to view their electronic notes about their clinic visits.
