If you have your doctors’ notes about you, well done. You are among the three percent in the country who do. For the rest of us in the U.S., Moore Foundation grantee OpenNotes wants to ensure you have ready access to your medical notes and use them to have better, more informed conversations with your health care provider.
For patients who don’t have access to their notes, OpenNotes co-founder Dr. Tom Delbanco says: “Ask your doctor for a copy. Doctors have been giving patients copies of notes for many years on a one-by-one basis. Encourage your doctor to give it to you, and tell him or her if he doesn’t, you’ll go somewhere else for care.”
A U.S. News and World Report article featured the OpenNotes movement, with nearly 13 million patients having access to OpenNotes at the beginning of 2017. The initiative’s goal is for 50 million patients to have access to their clinicians’ notes by 2020.
Need some convincing? Watch this Seinfeld episode to recall Elaine’s experience.
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