Continuing this monthly series: here’s this month’s update on travels, new bookings, and writings.

Access to our families’ health records:
The time for action is coming 

The best in healthcare of course depends on access to all useful information, but HHS has reported to Congress that certain parties are “knowingly interfering” with the flow of families’ health records. Two posts:

• Take action: We need a Federal policy change – perhaps even a law – so I wrote a call to action: Open a Big DaM Spigot – Data About Me! As the post says, “All change starts with people asking.”
  • See the post for some simple immediate actions.
  • Talk about it with friends, too – it’s getting to be “Paul Revere” time. Don’t wait til it’s your family member who’s in a crisis.

• Over on Medium, I commented on a post by entrepreneur Steve Kiernan about this issue, saying:
  “Who out there wants to present an argument why families should be kept apart from their people’s health data? … Is there any ethical or moral argument for no spigots?”

New bookings:

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Some email subscribers got an unfinished draft earlier today. Sorry for any inconvenience!

Continuing this monthly series: here’s this month’s update on travels, events, and writings.

Social Media Recognition: ranked #17 on the “#HIT99” Health IT social media influencers list

Upcoming travels: 

• August 13-14 D.C.: RWJF National Leader Summit on Integration of Behavioral Health & Primary Care. Participant.
• August 30-Sept. 02, Nijmegen, Netherlands (Radboud University Medical Center):
  • REshape Hacking Health 2015 hackathon. Judge
  • “Grand Inaugural Rounds” at RadboudUMC Medical School. Speaker.
• September 10, Lancaster PA: Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, 2015 Patient Safety & Quality Symposium. Speaker.
• September 11-19: speaking tour of Alaska! Multiple events in Anchorage and Soldotna
• September 23-27, Palo Alto: Medicine X | Ed. Speaker at Medicine X | Ed; attending the whole conference.

New confirmed travel plans:

• October 29-30, Boston: Connected Health Symposium. Attending as SPM partner.
• March 14, San Antonio: 2016 Parenteral Drug Association Annual  Meeting. Keynote.

Media mentions:

• The Center for Public Integrity published Obamacare research institute plans to spend $3.5 billion, but critics question its worth

• ComputerWeekly picked up my “don’t tell patients not to Google” message in a piece by Claire McDonald titled “Stop telling patients not to Google – one man’s quest for joined-up healthcare” – McDonald also talks about the NHS’s efforts to give patients better digital access to their data as part of an ongoing engagement effort. The idea is spreading!

• British Journal of Healthcare Computing (HIMSS Europe) Vox Pop posted a conversation with input from me, and from Rosamund Snow, Patient Editor at the BMJ, about the value that patients bring healthcare, and the ongoing efforts to build a sustainable framework for patient engagement.