In an editorial entitled “It’s My Heart, Why Not My Data” by Dr. Ira Nash in the January 2, 2018 edition of Circulation, Nash calls for device manufactures to allow patients to access the data generated by their implantable devices.

Nash, a cardiologist who himself has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, calls the paternalistic practice of limiting data access to physicians anachronistic in a world which has become more and more focused on empowering patients to make collaborative decisions with their physician.

Dr. Nash explains in a postscript to the article that after being denied patient access to the data generated by his implantable loop recorder, he was ultimately granted access to his data as a physician. Most of us don’t have that ability.  It would certainly be nice if patients were given the option to access their data simply because it is most important and relevant to them.  It is the patient’s life, after all, which is at stake.