Podcast Special Episode #5 - Bringing Medical Records into the 21st Century

Click here to listen to the original radio commentary this transcript is based on.

You may have heard me the other day defending the American medical system as the best in the world. That doesn't mean, though, there aren't problems we should fix.

One of these problems is that there's no way for most of us to get to our medical records without jumping through hoops. Not only do we end up filling out the same medical forms over and over, we pay both in lives and money.

Some analysts say Americans pay more than 50 billion dollars unnecessarily every year due to problems getting medical records. One in five medical tests, its said, is ordered because results to a previous test have been lost. Others say that many of the 50,000 or so medical errors that result in death each year could be prevented if doctors had the patient information they need. Problems with drug interactions and allergies could also be avoided. And all these problems drive up insurance costs.

If a used car salesman can check your credit in minutes, doctors ought to be able to pull up your vital records. If you can trade stocks online, doctors ought to be able to chart blood pressure or cholesterol levels over the years instead of making decisions based on a couple of recent readings. If the police can find outstanding parking ticket in seconds, emergency medical workers should be able to get information to save your life, or your child's, as easily. If you can access your bank account online, you ought to be able to check your own medical records, and fix them if they're wrong.

President Bush has been asking for such a system, with proper privacy protections, since he took office. Last year, both the senate and the house passed bipartisan bills designed to help bring our medical records into the modern era, but the differences between the two versions were never reconciled and nothing came of them.

It's pretty clear that this is one of those wheels that isn't going to get any grease until it starts squeaking. Next time you go for medical care, ask if your doctor is keeping your records in a form that can be shared with other providers. If the answer is "no," squeak a little.

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