Response to Dr. Ross Koppel regarding “Electronic health record ‘gag clauses’ and the prevalence of screenshots in peer-reviewed literature.”
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: We appreciate the thoughtful response to our brief article entitled “Electronic health record ‘gag clauses and the prevalence of screenshots in peer-reviewed literature.” Dr. Koppel raised several important points that we wish to acknowledge and respond to. Dr. Koppel reminds us that there were 2 Institute of Medicine Reports and an American Medical Informatics Association task force that described electronic health record (EHR) gag clauses and the problems associated with these clauses. There have also been several other stakeholders that have criticized these gag clauses as well as EHR vendors that have argued the clauses are necessary to protect intellectual property. It has taken far too long for a policy change to address the gag clause issue that was identified in 2009 by Dr. Koppel and others. In the over 10 years that it took for a policy change numerous harm events associated with EHRs have occurred that could have potentially been prevented by screenshot sharing to identify safety issues and resulting redesign, improvement, and mitigation. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) policy change is a major advancement, however, our data suggest it may not be having the desired effect of increasing the sharing of screenshots.
Authors: Monika Bapna, Kristen Miller, Raj M Ratwani
Institutions: Georgetown University, MedStar Health
Language: English
Subfield: Health Information Management
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4386531079