Are you ready to find out what your doctor is saying about you?
I personally like the idea of a doctor sharing his notes with the patient. So many other people do. That is why a year-long OpenNote project kicked in few weeks ago to find out if this transparency can facilitate doctor-patient communication, educate individuals about their own health and improve health outcomes. The team of nurses, physicians and 25,000 patients at Beth Israel Deaconess, Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle got seriously involved in the project. Peer-review evaluation by both doctor and patient is to come.
There are two sides of this “coin” being discussed. One is sharing the notes with the patients will improve their understanding of health, empower, educate and engage them more while adding transparency. Another is sharing the notes may lead to confusion and panic on the patient side. Thus, because of a specific terminology and abbreviations, individuals may take doctor’s notes in a wrong way. For example, OD does not mean overdose, but rather oculus dexter, or right eye.
It is said this system of sharing the notes will benefit those who have many medical problems and visit doctors quite frequently. It will let them be well informed about their health, ask questions and follow the medication and lifestyle regime prescribed by the doctors. Yet, I quite disagree with that. I do believe it will benefit those who do a general once-a-year check up – someone like me. If I do not understand the term I always can go online and check it, so other can.
More information on OpenNote project:
[...] mentioned the project in one of her earliest posts back in July. Thus, just to remind OpenNotes is a “demonstration and evaluation project exploring what [...]