Does a doctor treating you for a broken leg need to know you had an abortion 20 years ago? Should your dentist have access to information about your visit to a psychiatrist? Such questions are moving center stage as patients’ medical records increasingly are transferred from manila folders to the Internet, allowing easier access to medical history that the patient may not want known. In one of the latest examples of the debate over how much patient history doctors should have access to, Dr. Marc Overhage, chief executive of Indiana Health Information Exchange, cast the lone dissenting vote as a 17-member federal panel recommended that patients get more control over electronic health records. Overhage is a member of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, which sent its recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month. The panel encouraged HHS to give patients the power to sequester from their online medical records certain sensitive information such as domestic violence-related treatment, reproductive health and genetic information. However, physicians, in order to provide the best care possible, also need access to information — sometimes including information that is more personal in nature. The fact that a woman takes birth control pills, he said, could have an effect on how a doctor would prescribe other medications.
Please click on the link below to read the Indy Star article:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080323/BUSINESS/803230394/1175/LOCAL0102
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