EHR vendor eClinicalWorks on Tuesday announced its support for OpenNotes, the healthcare transparency and patient engagement initiative launched in 2010.

Earlier this week, the company announced an array of new technologies. In another bit of news, as eCW works to put this past spring's Department of Justice settlement in the rearview mirror, the vendor says it now will enable providers to more easily share visit notes with their patients using its patient portal.

[Also: New tech from eClinicalWorks: updated EHR, virtual assistant, FHIR interoperability tool]

The move will help more than 130,000 providers using eClinicalWorks to build stronger relationships with their patients, officials say, and help those patients be more in control of their healthcare data.

OpenNotes launched seven years ago with pilot projects at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Since then it has expanded dramatically, with health systems such as Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as vendors such as Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech all participating in the project.

By offering visibility into their clinical notes, eClinicalWorks' cloud-based portal will help patients gain insights into their care and encourage them to work more closely with their physicians on healthcare decision-making.

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com