I recently wrote about a historic day in opening doctor's notes. Sherry Reynolds is a healthcare industry veteran who is also a patient advocate and she made a strong point on her twitter stream: "If #OpenNotes was a new drug that increased patient engagement by 85%, every doctor in the country would be prescribing it. She later added the question when leading hospitals such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center open up their records for all patients (which they have done) and have demonstrably better outcomes, will it be malpractice not to. I made a similar point in Patient Engagement is the Blockbuster Drug of the Century. That is, it will become the new Standard of Care.
The graphic from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation expands on the findings of this groundbreaking study that will have a massive downstream impact. They call OpenNotes a "new medicine" which is the right way to look at it. It effectively tears down a wall between patients and physicians that will benefit both parties.
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