Patient access to records must be acceptable to both parties

EDITOR—Mandl et al think that patients should be able to annotate and challenge interpretations in their records, but in her commentary MacDonald says that this would have British doctors reeling in horror.1

The utility of patients auditing and being able to correct their computer held records has been shown in several studies, including studies of administrative records in hospital2 and problem and drug lists in diabetes outpatient clinics3 and general practice.4 In one study in general …