Patients Want Physicians to Share More

According to two new recently published studies, not only are a majority of patients interested in seeing what their doctors write on their personal health records, but they are also interested in being able to share the contents of those files with third parties, particularly family members.

The first study gathered information from over 18,000 individuals, mostly men aged 50 and older who use the MyHealtheVet online service.  The survey was conducted for a little over a month via the same online service.  When the results were tallied, researchers found that approximately 79% of the respondents were interested in sharing the information found in their medical files with “family members, caregivers, and non Veteran’s Affairs, healthcare providers.”

The second study surveyed 110 participating primary care physicians, 63 non-participating physicians, and 37,856 patients. Counting all three groups together, more than 38,000 individuals participated in the survey.  Once all the data that had been gathered, between 92% and 97% of patients who responded thought it would be a good idea if they had access to their personal medical notes written by their physician.  A majority of physicians also agreed that this would be a good idea, although this group had more points of dissension than the patients did.

Although both physicians and patients seem to be in general agreement about the potential benefits offered by sharing these medical notes with patients and other third parties, it would appear that the second study in particular has sparked slightly more concern within medical circles.  Some feel that patients would be unable to handle the information found in their charts, while others believe that giving patients access to this information could actually encourage them to take up a more active role in matters concerning their own health.

Detailed results and discussions for both research surveys can be found on the Annals of Internal Medicine website.  Click here for access to the study concerning granting personal health record access to third parties, and here for the study on granting patients access to their doctor’s notes.