Possible harms in sharing patients’ clinical notes

In the study described by Walker and colleagues, a third of patients reported some concerns over privacy of online access and 1-8% agreed that online access caused confusion, worry, or offence. 2 Given the low uptake (42%) and response rate (41%) across sites, these responses might reflect the views of a group of patients who are particularly internet savvy and keen on online access. 2 Similar to other authors, 4 we think that online access might sometimes deter patients from seeking healthcare or making full disclosure of relevant problems because of fear that a parent or household member might see the health record. 5 We would welcome studies that collected examples of how individual GP practices or federations had responded to these problems or that increased our understanding of how online access can work in younger or more vulnerable groups.