What If Patients See Their Notes First?

Clinicians write thousands of notes. For years, patients rarely saw them. But in the U.S. it's now the law that patients can access their clinical notes. So what happens when they do? Turns out, they’re not just reading. They’re remembering care plans, catching critical mistakes, and surfacing details others missed. Dr. Cait DesRoches, Executive Director at OpenNotes, and Liz Salmi, the group’s Communications and Patient Initiatives Director, have spent years advocating for transparency in care. In a conversation with Swaay.Health, they unpacked what happens when patients read their own records—and how that same ethos is now shaping their approach to healthcare AI.