In medical care, bad information can be deadly. All too often, patients fail to provide doctors or hospitals with a complete health history, including current medications and allergies. In other cases, health care providers lose or don't convey this information to the professionals on the spot in a timely manner.

In nearly every other sector of the economy, systems to convey critical information are electronic. But medical records are generally written and stored on paper, making errors more common and transfers of information cumbersome. The problem is that many patients and providers alike are reluctant to "go electronic" with medical records, because this information is so inherently personal and private. The question is one of simple trust: other than one's own doctor, who can be trusted to transfer medical information to the health professional and hospitals who need it?

This week an impressive group of physician and hospital industry leaders and patient advocates (including California Medical Association CEO Jack Lewin and National Consumers League President Linda Golodner) came together in Washington to launch a new initiative, the Patient Safety Institute (PSI), to provide an answer to this question of trust. PSI creates a three- way partnership among patients, doctors, and hospitals that will provide a voluntary and secure way for patients to transmit electronically the basic elements of their medical records: diagnosis, medications, allergies, lab tests, and immunizations. Doctors seeing a patient who has agreed to use the PSI network can be reasonably certain that they have at their fingertips the most important information for proper treatment.

PSI is a non-profit organization governed by a board of directors drawn equally from national leaders in the patient, physician and hospital communities. It aims to build a collaborative, voluntary information network that will improve quality and reduce errors because it will be governed by those who actually use the system. It will operate much like the trailblazing VISA credit card network, in which banks came together to create a way for consumers to make purchases worldwide through electronic handshakes, in a system that no one owns but everyone can access. (Interestingly enough, VISA founder Dee Hock has been advising PSI as it gets underway.)

Like many Internet services, PSI will be supported by revenue from making available research on the aggregated, anonymous data of its users -- though individual data is kept strictly confidential. To ensure privacy, PSI will use a state-of-the-art "three-key" security technology. As an added safeguard, it has also invited representatives of a variety of consumer advocacy and watchdog groups to serve on its board.

While reducing medical errors is the most important goal of PSI, it also represents a significant step towards an information- age health care system. As the Progressive Policy Institute has argued for a number of years, empowering both providers and consumers of health care services with complete and accurate information is in the long run the best way to ensure affordable, high-quality care.

We strongly encourage federal and state governments to get involved with PSI, as providers through public hospitals, and as purchasers of both health care services and data. It offers a neutral, third-party, secure arbiter that can be trusted with electronic medical records.