Using medical records for older patient education in ambulatory practice.

The effectiveness of sharing medical records in improving physician-older patient communication was evaluated in 203 ambulatory chronically ill older patients (mean age, 70.1 years) by a randomized controlled trial. Ninety-five experimental group patients received copies of their physicians' progress notes 1 week after their last office visit, and 108 control patients did not. After 1-2 weeks, knowledge of health problems, medication, and nonmedication treatments was assessed by interview. Experimental group patients knew 74.1% of their health problems, compared with 64.1% in the control groups (P