A recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine examines the benefits and drawbacks of increased transparency for patient medical records.
An increasing number of providers are using electronic medical records and patients are able to view their records through online patient portals, although only a small percentage do currently, according to the report. A survey taken among patients who do access their medical records reported "having better recall and understanding of their care plans and feeling more in control of their healthcare."
Two-thirds of these patients also reported improved medication adherence and physicians said the transparent medical records had "little effect" on their professional time. However, a minority of the physicians said they changed how they addressed topics such as cancer, mental health, substance abuse and obesity in their reports.
Further trends the article notes in transparent medical records include:
• Physicians often want to control what patients can see initially but with patient feedback some of these limitations fade away.
• Patients are more careful about what they share with clinicians.
• Patients consider new opportunities and risks with access to records.
• More patients are sharing their information with others for clarifications and second opinions.
• Eventually patients and family members may be able to identify errors in these reports.
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