Bad test results and Health Data Rights

The first study of its kind finds doctors failed to inform patients of abnormal cancer screenings and other test results 1 out of 14 times. The failure rate was higher at some doctors' offices, as high as 26 percent at one office. The findings are published in the June 22nd Archives of Internal Medicine.

With technology so pervasive in every other industry why is the health care industry lagging so far behind? Seamless access to your medical records for you and any doctor that treats you should be a basic right.

A Declaration of Health Data Rights
http://www.healthdatarights.org/

In an era when technology is allowing personal health information to be more easily stored, updated, accessed and exchanged, the following rights should be self-evident and inalienable. We the people:

• Have the right to our own health data


• Have the right to know the source of each health data element


• Have the right to take possession of a complete copy of our individual health data, without delay, at minimal or no cost; if data exist in computable form, they must be made available in that form


• Have the right to share our health data with others as we see fit

These principles express basic human rights as well as essential elements of health care that is participatory, appropriate and in the interests of each patient. No law or policy should abridge these rights.

Most medical practices will charge you for a copy of your medical records and in some cases the prices are structured to discourage you from asking. In Texas they can charge $37 for the first ten pages.

It is YOUR health information, you paid for it and therefore you own it.

Have a happy and healthy day.

Frank Ille