{"id":1273,"date":"2021-03-25T21:35:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T02:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.pocket.health\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2025-05-09T16:02:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T20:02:51","slug":"the-regulation-is-right-patients-are-ready-to-view-their-health-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pockethealth.com\/patient-resources\/the-regulation-is-right-patients-are-ready-to-view-their-health-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients are Ready to View Their Health Information \u2014 And Regulations are Catching Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

About the Author: \u201ce-Patient Dave\u201d deBronkart is PocketHealth\u2019s Chief Patient Officer. A survivor of a near-fatal cancer by being highly engaged in his care, he\u2019s now a global evangelist for patient engagement in health data as a path to better achieving healthcare\u2019s potential<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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On April 5 in the US a new regulation takes effect. Called the\u00a0Cures Act Final Rule<\/a>, it mandates that patients must have\u00a0online access\u00a0<\/em>to important parts of their medical record. For free.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Similarly, in Canada, the Province of Ontario\u2019s Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) now provides individuals with a right to access a record of personal health information in a digital format (though not necessarily online).\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Both rules include access to visit notes \u2013 the notes our clinicians write about their encounters with us. These notes are \u201ctext cousins\u201d to what PocketHealth does with images – they’re your health information, which belongs in your hands – so we pay close attention to related research. And this summer we got new evidence supporting our belief that patient access is viable, good, and patient centered<\/em>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In a\u00a0big new study<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in the prestigious\u00a0Journal of General Internal Medicine,\u00a0<\/em>96%<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a021,000 patients<\/strong>\u00a0said they understood their doctors\u2019 notes, and found them valuable \u2013 despite the skepticism we often hear.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The paper is the latest in the nearly 100 studies<\/a> about OpenNotes<\/a>, a social movement in which clinicians let patients read and download the clinician\u2019s actual visit notes. The study confirmed what activists have said for years: given the chance, patients are anything but passive.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n