Information and medicine

Someone did a study that allowed patients to see their doctor's notes. The sky did not fall.

What is missing from the write-up is impacts on health outcomes. The other thing that is missing is a cost-benefit analysis.

There are also external validity issues. I don't know about the other two study sites, but Harborview is Seattle is a high end medical center. Things might be different at, say, an urban hospitial serving a lot of Medicaid patients.

More broadly, the study is one more reminder of the astounding backwardness of medical IT.

Via MR.