ArticleJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2016
Patients learning to read their doctors' notes: the importance of reminders.
Article in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Quantifying Patient Portal Use: Systematic Review of Utilization Metrics.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Interventions to increase patient portal use in vulnerable populations: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2019Pooled it
- Communicating with Vulnerable Patient Populations: A Randomized Intervention to Teach Inpatients to Use the Electronic Patient Portal.Applied clinical informatics · 2018Trial
- Patient Engagement With Open Notes Following the 21st Century Cures Act.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Which Patients With Cancer Access Their Clinical Notes? A Disparities Analysis.JCO clinical cancer informatics · 2025Article
- Factors Associated with Reducing Disparities in Electronic Personal Heath Records Use Among Non-Hispanic White and Hispanic Adults.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2023Article
- The Role of Access Type and Age Group in the Breadth of Use of Patient Portals: Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Observational
- Tablet distribution to veterans: an opportunity to increase patient portal adoption and use.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2022Article
- Digital Facilitation to Support Patient Access to Web-Based Primary Care Services: Scoping Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- What do primary care staff think about patients accessing electronic health records? A focus group study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Impact of Patient Access to Online VA Notes on Healthcare Utilization and Clinician Documentation: a Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2021Article
- Capturing the Impact of Patient Portals Based on the Quadruple Aim and Benefits Evaluation Frameworks: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- OpenNotes After 7 Years: Patient Experiences With Ongoing Access to Their Clinicians' Outpatient Visit Notes.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Patients' Perceptions of the Patient Portal Experience with OpenNotes.Applied clinical informatics · 2019Article
- Genomics and electronic health record systems.Human molecular genetics · 2018Review
- Patterns in Patient Access and Utilization of Online Medical Records: Analysis of MyChart.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- Sharing notes with patients: A review of current practice and considerations for neurologists.Neurology. Clinical practice · 2017Article
- Your Patient Is Now Reading Your Note: Opportunities, Problems, and Prospects.The American journal of medicine · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo examine whether patients invited to review their clinicians' notes continue to access them and to assess the impact of reminders on whether patients continued to view notes. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe followed OpenNotes trial participants for 2 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Geisinger Health System (GHS). Electronic invitations alerting patients to signed notes stopped at GHS after year 1, creating a natural experiment to assess the impact of reminders. We used generalized linear models to measure whether notes were viewed within 30 days of availability.
resultsWe identified 14 360 patients (49 271 visits); mean age 52.2; 57.8% female. In year 1, patients viewed 57.5% of their notes, and their interest in viewing notes persisted over time. In year 2, BIDMC patients viewed notes with similar frequency. In contrast, GHS patients viewed notes far less frequently, a change starting when invitations ceased (RR 0.29 [0.26-0.32]) and persisting to the end of the study (RR 0.20 [0.17-0.23]). A subanalysis of BIDMC patients revealed that black and other/multiracial patients also continued to view notes, although they were overall less likely to view notes compared with whites (RR 0.75 [0.67-0.83] and 0.93 [0.89-0.98], respectively). DISCUSSION: As millions of patients nationwide increasingly gain access to clinicians' notes, explicit email invitations to review notes may be important for fostering patient engagement and patient-doctor communication.
conclusionNote viewing persists when accompanied by email alerts, but may decline substantially in their absence. Non-white patients at BIDMC viewed notes less frequently than whites, although their interest also persisted.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.