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My Father’s Medical Record Fiasco

Guest post by Alan Viars (@Aviars), CEO of Videntity Systems, Inc. This past year my father required open heart surgery. This is a short article about the hurdles we (his family) encountered along the way. I’ve changed the names, because it is not my intention to...

Why Participatory Medicine?

For most people, their impetus to be actively engaged in healthcare comes from an experience with serious illness—either their own or a loved one’s. My journey into participatory medicine began during my internal medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, a public...

“HIPAA is SO 1996”

That’s a direct quote from Paul Tang, of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, at last week’s meeting of the Health IT Policy committee, of which he is vice chair. Dr. Tang was riffing on an e-Patient Dave quote, which I read during my testimony: I want...

Why Electronic Medical Records Still Leak

I hear it time and time again in the e-health industry: “If only we had everyone on an electronic medical record, all of our security and privacy issues would be solved!” Really? Perhaps I should introduce you to a little something psychologists like to...

Health IT Policy: E-patients want access

What would you say to policymakers who are discussing the implementation of a national health information infrastructure? Here’s what I’d say: E-patients want access to tools and information.  Many will find what they need, many will not. You can help....

Dx: Revolting.   Rx: Revolt.

Tuesday night, endorsement #906 on HealthDataRights.org came from a Judy Beckman, who says: “I agree all the way I cannot get MY records unless I pay for MY records $1.00 per page WHY WHY these are MINE???????????” Indeed, why? Whose data is it, anyway? This spring...

Imagine someone had been managing your data: next anecdote

Next anecdote about poorly managed medical data: Amen! Just had an incident where my SS# was attached to a different patient’s name in the electronic med record. And the health facility will not tell me where the error occured, or how long someone else’s name was...

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