The Honorable Mick MulvaneyDirectorUnited States Office of Management and Budget725 17th St., NWWashington, DC 20503 |
The Honorable Alex M. Azar IISecretaryUnited States Department of Health and Human Services200 Independence Avenue, SWWashington, DC 20201 |
Dear Director Mulvaney and Secretary Azar,
OpenNotes urges the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to finalize rules currently proposed to help patients by fostering greater transparency and interoperability of their health information. A growing evidence base indicates that patients who have access to their full medical record, including the notes their clinicians compose following office visits, report better understanding of their health and illness, feel more in control of healthcare decisions, and are able to identify important errors and inaccuracies in their records.
We at OpenNotes are not software developers or medical information officers. Our aim is to have patients gain easy and complete access to information that can help them to understand the full picture of their health and illness, to engage more actively in their care, to make more informed decisions, and to increase their own safety. We believe the proposed rules mark an important step toward such elusive, but important goals. We trust also that concomitantly the federal government and all parties involved will work assiduously to safeguard the privacy of such personal and privileged data.
Sincerely,
Catherine M. DesRoches
On behalf of OpenNotes
