BRIAN KLEPPER and DAVID C. KIBBE
The dream of reason did not take power into account...Modern medicine is one of those extraordinary works of reason...But medicine is also a world of power.
-Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, 1984
Today's unveiling of a Declaration of Health Data Rights is an important action, long overdue, that represents a collaborative effort by a group of health care professionals - activists, entrepreneurs, technologists and clinicians - all colleagues we hold in high esteem.
The Declaration's several points arise from a single, simple premise: that patients own their own data, and that that ownership cannot be pre-empted by a professional or an institution. And there lies its power, especially in the context of early 21st Century health care. It is a transformative ideal that currently is not the norm. But we join our colleagues in declaring that it should be.
