TY - JOUR T1 - Online access to medical records: finding ways to minimise harms JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 280 LP - 281 DO - 10.3399/bjgp15X685129 VL - 65 IS - 635 AU - Jenny Woodman AU - Alex Hardip Sohal AU - Ruth Gilbert AU - Gene Feder Y1 - 2015/06/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/65/635/280.abstract N2 - Currently, GP practices in England should be offering their adult patients online access to a brief summary of their general practice medical record, to be followed as soon as possible by access to the full record. This mandate came into effect in April 2015.1 The vision is that all adults will have online access to all their health and social care records by 2020.1Potentially, online access is more convenient for patients, empowers and enables patients to take better control of their health and health behaviour, helps patients navigate a complex system, and may make services more efficient, thereby reducing costs.2,3 The policy is also underpinned by ethical arguments about autonomy and individual rights: the health information in the record belongs to the patient who has at least equal rights of access as healthcare providers.2A recent systematic review found that patients reported benefits of online access in terms of experience, satisfaction, and feeling able to take control of their own health care, with possible advantages to patient safety when patients have online access to medication lists.4,5 However, the same review concluded that we do not know whether online access translates into better health or health care for patients or whether it improves service efficiency.4,5Like any policy, there is also potential for unintended harm and this is our focus here, particularly those harms related to privacy and confidentiality. There has been no study on this topic as yet.4,5Online patient access is in the process of being … ER -