The patient perspective on the effects of medical record accessibility: a systematic review.

Background: Health care is shifting from a paternalistic to a participatory model, with increasing patient involvement. Medical record accessibility to patients may contribute significantly to patient comanagement.Objectives: To systematically review the literature on the patient perspective of effects of personal medical record accessibility on the individual patient, patient–physician relationship and quality of medical care.Methods: Screening of PubMed, Web of Science, Cinahl, and Cochrane Library on the keywords ‘medical record’, ‘patient record’, ‘communication’, ‘patient participation’, ‘doctor–patient relationship’, ‘physician–patient relationship’ between 1 January 2002 and 31 January 2016; systematic review after assessment for methodological quality.Results: Out of 557 papers screened, only 12 studies qualified for the systematic review. Only a minority of patients spontaneously request access to their medical file, in contrast to frequent awareness of this patient right and the fact that patien...