Study to make physician notes available to patients online

Starting next year, about 25,000 patients will be able to see all the encounter notes from their primary care physicians on an online personal health record for the duration of a 12-month study. Researchers expect 100 physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Geisinger Health System primary care offices in rural Pennsylvania, and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to participate in the "OpenNotes Project."

"For every patient who takes up a lot more time as a result of it, there's another patient who takes up a lot less time because his or her questions are answered," says study leader Tom Delbanco, MD, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor at Harvard Medical School.