Philip Marshall, MD

2615 NE 41st Ave.
Portland, OR 97212
331-2298

email: PhilSCV@worldnet.att.net

I appreciate being able to add some brief public testimony in this open forum. My name is Philip Marshall. I am a Public Health/ Preventive Medicine Resident in Portland, Oregon. These comments are my own and do not necessarily represent those with whom I am employed.

I would like to thank you in advance for your work in defining a set of core data elements, both administrative and clinical, which have been shown to be useful in medical transactions. This will be a very important step forward. I would also like to thank you in advance for your general recommendations regarding privacy and security of medical information. I say "general recommendations" because I am sure you realize that it may be more important to establish general expectations for medical information security than to dictate specific technologic solutions. The dynamic nature of the Web and other technologies demonstrates that we cannot say today which specific hardware or software solutions may be right for tomorrow. Even though the World Wide Web is not prepared to handle the security of all medical transactions today, technology is quickly racing ahead to meet our needs.

In addition, I would like to agree with what many others have already stated in these hearings: heavy constraints placed on the use of medical record review for research purposes will undermine our ability to learn from and improve our healthcare system. I ask the Committee to encourage in any way possible some latitude in the use of linkable medical record data for research purposes by our clinicians and researchers.

Best of luck in your deliberations. I anxiously look forward to your results.