AMIA Calls For Patient Access to Complete Health Information

AMIA has urged the federal government to repeal a regulation on unstructured EHR data that could help patients access their health information. At the 2016 ONC Annual Meeting, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) has asked the federal government to repeal the prohibition on the use of unstructured data in order to help patients access all of their health information.

In a statement on its website, AMIA explained that the regulation that limits the use of unstructured data has caused healthcare stakeholders to only access certain parts of EHR data for patients, such as summaries, and not the entire medical history. “The prohibition – originally included to prevent unstructured data overload – has outlived its usefulness,” said Douglas B. Fridsma, MD, PhD, FACP, FACMI, AMIA President and CEO. “Further, this prohibition has muted conversations on data portability for providers looking to switch EHRs, who currently only have access to summary records of their patients’ data.”

AMIA advised CMS and ONC to use their authority to eliminate the outdated regulation and promote the use of CDA templates, which are FHIR-based resources that are more interoperable. By using FHIR standards, healthcare providers and patients would be more likely to access complete medical records across different healthcare technologies...