Improving health and health care depends upon accurate, timely, understandable, and relevant information in the hands of consumers, patients and health professionals, where and when they need it. To improve quality and prevent medical errors, health care professionals must shift away from today’s reliance on paper health records and adopt trustworthy methods to gather, store and share patient data electronically (“electronic health data exchanges”).
New technologies, networks, and organizations are emerging to provide greater electronic connectivity and data exchange across health care institutions and with consumers, patients and families. To ensure that our personal health information is used appropriately, to protect privacy, and to create a climate of public trust, all of the many custodians of our health data should adhere to a set of fundamental principles.
