Key Findings
- Roughly 2 in 3 members of the public and doctors agree that people should be able to download their personal health information.
- In order to qualify for new federal subsidies for using health IT, health care providers and hospitals must meet requirements to give patients electronic copies of lists of medications, after-visit summaries, lab results, and other pertinent information.
- 62 percent of the public called this requirement important for the health IT subsidies to be well spent.
- Roughly half of the doctors surveyed agreed.
Observations
- Solid majorities of both the public and doctors surveyed support the principle that people ought to be able to download and keep copies of their personal health information.
- But patients today seldom request copies in electronic format.
