Interesting topic.
I graduated from Med school 20yrs ago now. However Organic chemistry was one of my favorite topic and found it quite straight forward.
I guess I did not know at the time it was supposed to be difficult and just enjoyed the topic. I thought it was like playing complex Lego/Mechano.
Even now, as the drug reps come by and show new molecules, I am still am fascinated at what they look like and wonder how the synthesizes it.

I wonder if they can make Reader open source

Must..change...glasses...resistance is futile

Sorry, reformatting:

There are pro and cons with patients accessing ALL their records (i'm on EMR)

PRO:
-it's your record and you know best if there is a mistake in my profile of you (meds, family history, past history)
-it puts you in the driver seat for your own health (knowing your own cholesterol profile, cardiac /cancer risk factor, obesity , smoking , alcohol etc...)
-you can see my perspective of you as a patient (warning: can be painful, and if you understand all the medical terms and jargon)
-it actually takes away some of my responsibility (advised you take such meds/immunization/lifestyle changes/screening procedure/lab/xray...and you did not do it) -shows you how little I make per visit compared to my US conterparts -shows you how much you wasted the system for some of your useless visits (esp. to urgent care: eg. sniffle that started this morning)
-hopefully you realize that medicine diagnosis and treatment is not black and white but a very wide shade of grey, and certain diagnosis and treatment takes several visits and referrals before you get it right (what version of Chrome am I using now?)

CONS: -you might be hurt if there some truth that hurts (eg: you're an unionized worker who cannot return to work because of small booboo while I'm sitting in front of you with a bigger boobooo, the differential diagnosis of your real back pain is malingering, if I think you're anxious and depressed and you think you're not, if I test you for a sexually transmitted disease because I know you're partner has not been faithful and you don't know, etc...)
-you might think my notes are not complete because I can't type in fast enough or I did not type in what you were thinking -you might come back to clarify jargon/terms you do not understand, and it's going to take me for ever to explain to you that it was 'within normal limits' and there only so many hours in a day to see patients, and you're not a priority when there are sick people who would benefit from the time wasted on you.
-when you are used to a free medicare system , are you ready to pay to have access to your record?
-when I refer to you as SOB it stands for 'shortness of breath', however FOS really means constipated. This actually happens to me!

As for lawsuits: I'm not worried about it, because in a law suit your lawyer will have access to the whole chart anyway
As for hiding how much I make: it's public knowledge how much I make per visit (at least here in Canada), just multiply that by the number of visits, and I don't write that in your chart

I'm sure there are lots of other point, but those are the ones I can think of in 5 min.

Have you tried being diplomatic to a psychopath?

There are pro and cons with patients accessing ALL their records (i'm on EMR) PRO: -it's your record and you know best if there is a mistake in my profile of you (meds, family history, past history) -it puts you in the driver seat for your own health (knowing your own cholesterol profile, cardiac /cancer risk factor, obesity , smoking , alcohol etc...) -you can see my perspective of you as a patient (warning: can be painful, and if you understand all the medical terms and jargon) -it actually takes away some of my responsibility (advised you take such meds/immunization/lifestyle changes/screening procedure/lab/xray...and you did not do it) -shows you how little I make per visit compared to my US conterparts -shows you how much you wasted the system for some of your useless visits (esp. to urgent care: eg. sniffle that started this morning) -hopefully you realize that medicine diagnosis and treatment is not black and white but a very wide shade of grey, and certain diagnosis and treatment takes several visits and referrals before you get it right (what version of Chrome am I using now?) CONS: -you might be hurt if there some truth that hurts (eg: you're an unionized worker who cannot return to work because of small booboo while I'm sitting in front of you with a bigger boobooo, the differential diagnosis of your real back pain is malingering, if I think you're anxious and depressed and you think you're not, if I test you for a sexually transmitted disease because I know you're partner has not been faithful and you don't know, etc...) -you might think my notes are not complete because I can't type in fast enough or I did not type in what you were thinking -you might come back to clarify jargon/terms you do not understand, and it's going to take me for ever to explain to you that it was 'within normal limits' and there only so many hours in a day to see patients, and you're not a priority when there are sick people who would benefit from the time wasted on you. -when you are used to a free medicare system , are you ready to pay to have access to your record? -when I refer to you as SOB it stands for 'shortness of breath', however FOS really means constipated. This actually happens to me! As for lawsuits: I'm not worried about it, because in a law suit your lawyer will have access to the whole chart anyway As for hiding how much I make: it's public knowledge how much I make per visit (at least here in Canada), just multiply that by the number of visits, and I don't write that in your chart I'm sure there are lots of other point, but those are the ones I can think of in 5 min.