When I read through the summaries of the 21st Century Cures act, I interpreted the line about not having to release information that could cause harm to a patient to mean that we did not have to auto-release pathology results. I held that belief until I got a message from Justin pointing out the discussion in the Q&A section of the final rule. Sure enough, they clearly state that having a policy for withholding results across the board is considered information blocking; the requirement to withhold information must be individualized. Justin and I discuss the implications of this including the possibility of patients learning they have the genes for Huntington's disease or the diagnosis of cancer from the hospital electronic portal. Yikes.
We also discuss their use of chatbots during the COVID crisis and their journey towards better clinical decision support at the University of Rochester. They have a great informatics team at U of R. I have been fortunate enough to interview a few members of their team and they are doing great things.
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