Health IT

MISSION: In the U.S., the medical system has not taken advantage of information technology relative to other sectors of the economy, such as finance or energy. To make up this lost ground, the Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights is determined to ensure that health IT is used as a tool to improve healthcare delivery, not as a weapon to gain access to personal medical records without the patient’s permission.  

American physicians practice 21st century medicine. Unfortunately, not all physicians are using 21st century information systems. During a visit to any doctor’s office or health clinic, one is bound to find a wall covered with countless colored folders stuffed with medical records. In a society where technology is more sophisticated in our grocery store than in our doctor’s office this must change.

Health IT can eliminate medical errors that are caused by illegible penmanship or misreading a health provider’s handwritten notes.  It will also eliminate duplicative testing by expanding more efficient and accurate access to prior medical tests and results.  And just as importantly, health IT provides rapid healthcare delivery.

In the medical world, speed is of the essence. When minutes are all a patient has, a doctor cannot waste hours searching for information or running tests. Advancing health IT will not only allow doctors to work more efficiently, but also save lives.

However, inappropriately designed and implemented health information systems can increase errors and fail to advance medical care.  It also can interfere with the trusted patient-physician relationship. Trust is essential in the patient-physician relationship and patient privacy and medical record confidentiality are necessary to maintain that trust.  To enhance security of the database, a “unique patient identifier” should be avoided as it increases the risk of breach of confidentiality and patients can be identified with a combination of other data points. In addition, patients and doctors must retain the right to opt out of any central database or repository of health information.