Information is care...

Two quotes from Donald Berwick’s Escape Fire address sum it up quite nicely.

“The medical record properly belongs to the patient, not to the care system. It must become an open book to the patient, available without restriction, hesitation, or suspicion. Diane Plamping, a public health researcher from the U.K., offered me the following rule about access to information: ‘Nothing about me without me.’ ”

and… 

“Information … is care. People want knowledge, and the transfer of knowledge is caring, itself. Whenever we put a block or bottleneck in the way of knowledge transfer — whether we call it an appointment, or permission, or even a decision by anyone other than the person who wants to know — we add cost without value and fail to meet need.”