OpenNotes

07/10/2025

Older adults are living longer and redefining what it means to age, but is our country equipped to help them thrive as they age?

Aging in America: Survive or Thrive, a one-hour PBS documentary supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF), explores the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing an aging population.

The film is available for free educational screenings, and your organization can host one! It’s a great way to spark discussion and connection around a topic that affects us all. JAHF has also created a discussion guide for professionals in the field of aging as well as one for the public.

To request a screening and download the discussion guides, visit this page: www.aginginamericasurviveorthrive.com/contact/

04/21/2025

Thank you to for recognizing OpenNotes as Patient Experience Program of the Year!

We were honored to be nominated for the award by the community. This award recognizes initiatives that improved or sustained high levels of excellence in patient experience, patient access, and/or patient engagement.

We will continue putting patients at the center of our work and making healthcare more transparent.

04/18/2025

🧠 Can large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT help people understand their open notes?

A new study shows they might. Expert patients Dana Lewis and Liz Salmi worked together on this research to find out how well AI can answer real questions from real patients. The questions were based on a medical note from a visit with a brain cancer specialist. (The note belonged to Liz, and she gave permission to use it.)

Both Liz (the patient) and her doctor looked at the answers from different AI tools—but they didn’t know which tool gave which answer. They found that when the AI was told to “act like a doctor,” it gave better answers.

Why does this matter? Many patients read their notes at home and have questions. LLMs could help explain medical language and support people between visits with their care team.

The main takeaway: Generative AI has potential to help patients—but how we ask the AI questions makes a big difference. It’s important to teach both patients and clinicians how to use it safely and clearly.

📖 Read the full open access article here: https://lnkd.in/gShAW6iP

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

04/09/2025

Did you know that the way clinicians write their notes has a direct impact on the care the patient receives?

Notes have historically been written with the goal of communicating to other clinicians. You've probably seen stigmatizing language in your own medical notes like "non-compliant."

Dr. Anita Vanka and our team at are teaching students at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to write with the patient in mind.

And the stakes are high according to a 2018 study in PubMed.

"What they found was that the group of trainees who read the note with the stigmatizing language was less likely to treat the patient’s pain and had a more negative perception of the patient.

So it not only affects our relationship with the patients or how we may view them but can impact care as well," said Vanka.

Have you ever encountered stigmatizing words in your medical notes? What would you want the next generation of medical students to know about communicating with patients?

All Articles Teaching Doctors to Write for Patients March 2025 Teaching Doctors to Write for Patients How patient access to medical notes is changing clinical documentation Winter 2025 by Amos Esty 7 min Interview Over just five years, from 2017 to 2022, the percentage of Americans who accessed thei...

04/03/2025

Language like "chief complaint," "patient is combative," or "patient is non-compliant," are discouraged in Harvard's new curriculum for writing medical notes.

Instead, students are asked to reflect. Have they ever read their own clinical notes or those of a family member? How did they respond?

Best practices include:

✅ Use person-first language

✅ Refer to your patients as how they want to be identified

✅ Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, especially if not officially approved by the practice

✅ Say what you write, write what you say

✅ Verify past history information before recording it in the note

✅ Avoid words which may convey bias or judgment

✅ Keep physical exam descriptions objective

✅ Empower your patients with encouraging words and clear next steps

✅ Pay close attention to sensitive topics, including but not limited to sexual history, trauma history, substance history, mental health or illness

✅ Write from your perspective

How about you — have you ever read medical notes that felt alarming instead of helpful? How did you respond?

Read more:

At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Anita Vanka led an effort to create a comprehensive curriculum based on patient-centered documentation practices.

04/01/2025

In a bold move to restore the art of human connection in healthcare, OpenNotes is proud to announce its newest initiative: Retro Notes.

This is a revolutionary program delivering medical records to patients the old-fashioned way: meticulously handwritten in calligraphy and flown to doorsteps via carrier pigeon.

“Digital records are convenient, but they lack that certain je ne sais scribble,” said Catherine M. DesRoches, Executive Director of OpenNotes. “We’re committed to transparency, but now we’re adding a touch of elegance—sometimes in the form of medieval-looking ink smudges.”

Inspired by a bygone era when doctors squinted to decipher the writing of colleagues, Retro Notes aims to bring back the personal charm of hand-penned documentation. Each note is transcribed onto recycled parchment and sealed with a wax stamp before being entrusted to a team of highly trained (and mostly cooperative) pigeons.

Read more: https://www.opennotes.org/?post_type=news&p=19333

03/28/2025

Out of 16,005 patients, only HALF of them knew they could share portal�access with care partners.

This needs to change.

Join the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care for a conversation called "Shared Access to Adult Patient Portals: A Vital Tool for Care Partners."

Learn more about:
1️⃣ what shared access is
2️⃣ how it can be beneficial to patients and their care partners, as well as to clinicians and staff
3️⃣ what we learned from a shared access demonstration project with three health systems
4️⃣ how patient and family advisors can advocate for increased knowledge about and utilization of shared access at their health systems

📅 April 22nd at 12pm Eastern
🔗

Join IPFCC for our next Informal Conversation, Shared Access to Adult Patient Portals: A Vital Tool for Care Partners. Many adult patients have care partners who assist them in managing their care. One valuable tool for these care partners is shared access to the patient's online patient portal. Man...

03/19/2025

“Patients and clinicians agree on the importance of SDOH data, but significant concerns remain about how this information is used and documented,” said Cait DesRoches, DrPH MSc, Executive Director of .�

Many people worry about how sharing personal information—such as their income, education level, or living conditions—will be used in healthcare settings.��

Read the rest of our pivotal study in JAMA Network Open in collaboration with the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC): https://lnkd.in/eNiP3Hw3

03/17/2025

Meet Liz!

Liz Salmi is the Communications & Patient Initiatives Director for OpenNotes.

In this role, Liz helps clinicians, hospitals and health systems understand through “the patient’s eyes” the changing nature of patient-clinician communication in an age of growing transparency.

Her research areas of interest include: the effects of transparency on patient-clinician communication, stakeholder engagement, research dissemination, and the role of social media in patient-clinician-researcher collaborations.

As a person living with a low grade malignant brain tumor, Liz is passionate about helping all people engage in their own health care by improving their experience as patients.

Read more: https://www.opennotes.org/family/liz-salmi/

03/12/2025

Meet Cait!

Catherine (Cait) M. DesRoches, DrPH, MSc, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a health policy and data nerd with expertise in emerging trends in health care delivery.

Cait noticed early in her career that the concerns of patients and their families are often not the same as those of clinicians and policymakers.

Bringing this patient and family voice into the world of health services research led directly to her current role as the Director of OpenNotes.

She is the Principal Investigator of the OpenNotes Lab–which designs, evaluates, and guides innovations in clinical documentation, medical records, and patient engagement.

03/07/2025

Meet Chethan!

Chethan Sarabu, MD, FAAP, FAMIA, is Director of Clinical Innovation for the Health Tech Hub at Cornell Tech, where he focuses on broadly connecting the dots across academic health innovation programs and the broader health innovation industry.

In addition, he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, where his work centers around the practical application of open notes in pediatric settings, with a particular emphasis on health equity and patient privacy considerations.

Chethan has been involved in the utilization of Language Models (LLMs) and AI in healthcare, bringing a nuanced perspective to their integration. He consults for OpenNotes as an AI and Informatics Strategist with the Lab.

Read more: https://www.opennotes.org/family/chethan-sarabu-md-famia/