UC San Diego Health launched capabilities to support OpenNotes, an international movement designed to encourage providers to share clinical notes with patients, in June.
Here are four things to know about UC San Diego Health's involvement:
1. The international OpenNotes movement supports the use of online patient portals to connect patients with their notes. More than 22 million patients in the U.S. and Canada have access to their clinical notes through systems like patient portals, according to a UC San Diego Health statement.
2. Under the program, patients at UC San Diego Health will be able to read notes signed by physicians in participating medical teams, including primary care, internal medicine, family medicine, urology, hematology and oncology. The health system plans to add more participants over time.
3. To access their notes, patients must log into the health system's patient portal, called MyUCSDChart. The portal contains information on a patient's medical history, prescriptions, lab results and appointments. In the future, UC San Diego may allow patients to contribute to their notes online.
4. For UC San Diego Health, a key goal of the program is to improve communication between physicians and patients.
"With OpenNotes, we acknowledge that patients have a right to view her or his medical records, including their physician's notes," Marlene Millen, MD, chief medical information officer for ambulatory care at UC San Diego Health, said in the health system's statement. "As a primary care doctor, my hope is that these notes will help my patients have a better understanding of their overall care, and will help them see how much I think and care about them."