Patient and Family Access to Electronic Health Records: A Key Ingredient for a Pediatric Learning Health System

In the United States (US) health care system, the evolution of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) is at a unique crossroad. Federal regulations requiring “meaningful use” are incentivizing providers to use electronic portals for secure communication and ensuring that patients have increasing access to their own medical records [1]. Based on the number of times an EHR is accessed per week, some health systems now have more patients accessing the EHR than physicians. It is important to encourage patients to access their EHR so that their engagement can contribute to the clinical care as well as to clinical research. The Institute of Medicine has charged the nation to increase patient involvement in the EHR by creating learning health systems (LHS: defined as a health system that applies evidence-based medicine in a collaborative effort between patient and provider) [2]. The authors believe patients’ access to their own EHRs could encourage them to better co-manage their disease as well as to contribute to ongoing clinical research.