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me again with news on something that we have discussed several times. janet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- National Medical Records Database To Be Created -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALEXANDRIA, Sep 19 (Reuters) - The September 18 issue of the AMERICAN HEALTH LINE features an ARIZONA DAILY STAR report about efforts underway to create a new national medical records database. Currently, a consortium of healthcare experts is working on the electronic "Master Patient Index" that would cover "...every American's medical records from cradle to grave." The organizing committee for the medical records index includes representatives from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense and Energy; hospitals in North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia; and patients and providers. The DAILY STAR notes that "...pressure for a nationwide health indexing system became acute..." after the Kassebaum-Kennedy health insurance reform bill was signed into law. The law's "administrative simplification" provisions call for the creation of a national patient index and for a "...unique patient identifier..." by the end of next year. Organizers say the centralized medical index will help to eliminate duplication of services, unclear medical histories and other inefficiencies by cataloguing "...every encounter you have with a doctor, clinic, hospital, insurer or HMO." The DAILY STAR reports that the "master index would not replace existing patient identification systems, but would provide a common gateway to all of them." Margaret Amatayakul, director of the computer-based Patient Record Institute in Schaumburg, Illinois, said that the "...master index will not contain actual medical records," but instead will list "pointers" to regional and local indices of patient records "...kept by doctors, hospitals, health insurers or government agencies." David Kilman, a computer expert at Los Alamos National Laboratory where the idea for the index originated, said, "Physicians can retrieve health information from multiple sources while maintaining strict confidentiality, even though the actual records are scattered around the country." DAILY STAR notes that planners of the database "...acknowledge that a centralized medical index... raises fears that sensitive information about a person's medical history could get in the wrong hands." As of yet, no decision has been made about who will maintain the index. DAILY STAR notes that "...it could be a government agency; it could be a consortium of public and private healthcare providers." Supporters of the index "..say they could solve the privacy problem..." and note that a "properly designed" index would provide more protection than is currently offered with the nation's "haphazard collection of paper and electronic records." Under current plans, local organizations will continue to determine who gets access to individual medical records. "Only persons with a 'security ticket' -- such as doctors, insurers, scientific researchers, police with a proper warrant -- are supposed to be able to get into the clinical details," according to the DAILY STAR. Robert Mayes, a medical information specialist at HCFA, said, "Our model offers much more control over who accesses medical information. It has the capability of putting in buffers and checkpoints. It lets a person or organization say 'wait a minute' before anyone can see their data" (9/17). Westport Newsroom 203 221 7648 REUTERS [H:PROF][MANC] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask]