COVID-19 and Open Notes: A New Method to Enhance Patient Safety and Trust.

UNSTRUCTURED: From April 5, 2021, as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, all providers in the US must offer patients access to the medical information housed in their electronic records. Via secure health portals, patients can login to access lab and test results, lists of prescribed medications, referral appointments, and the narrative reports written by clinicians (so-called 'open notes'). As US providers implement this practice innovation, we describe six promising ways in which patient access to their notes might help address problems that either emerged with, or were exacerbated, by the COVID-19 pandemic.