Your records from every clinic and laboratory, together in a record you hold

How often records arrive on their own

In a survey of 8,122 US family physicians fielded in 2023 and 2024, only 8% reported an ideal experience receiving test results from outside hospitals or health systems, meaning they often obtained them automatically and could easily find and compare them in their own record system.¹ For encounter documents, the best-performing type, the figure was 19%.¹ The copy you hold closes that gap.

Your right of access in the United States

Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a covered provider must act on a request for access no later than 30 days after receiving it. It may extend that once, by no more than 30 days, and only if it tells you in writing why and by when.²

Where the record is held electronically and you ask for an electronic copy, the provider must give it electronically, in the form you ask for if it is readily producible. Any fee must be reasonable and cost-based, limited to labour for copying, supplies, postage and preparing a summary if you agreed to one.²

You can also have a copy sent directly to someone else, such as a new clinic. The request must be in writing, signed, and must name the person and where to send it.²

Your right of access in the United Kingdom

In the UK, the right of access lets you ask any organisation, including a private clinic or a laboratory, for a copy of the personal information it holds about you. Anyone can ask without a solicitor, and the organisation usually has one month to reply.³

Normally there is no fee. If the request is complex or you have made several, the organisation can take up to two more months, but must tell you within the first month and explain why. If it asks for proof of identity, the month starts once it has what it needs.⁴

The ICO suggests a subject line that says subject access request, the date, your name and any earlier names, your contact details and any patient or account numbers.³

Practical steps, clinic by clinic

Start with a list of every place that has treated or tested you in the last five years, including private clinics, hospitals, imaging centres, laboratories, dentists and any online service that ordered tests for you.

Ask each one for letters and discharge summaries, laboratory and imaging reports with their reference ranges, your medication and allergy list, and vaccination records, as electronic copies or a structured export where the clinic offers one.

Log each request with the date sent and the date due. A polite reminder that quotes the due date usually moves a late one.

Keeping it together in a record you hold

A wai Profile keeps results, letters, prescriptions and readings on one timeline, with clinic records and hospital letters alongside data from Apple Health, Oura, Fitbit and glucose monitors.⁵ Patterns show across every source.

Every sharing permission is explicit and revocable, and you can export the record or remove it entirely.⁵ It is never sold or used to train external models.⁵ Profiles are open now on the set up your Profile page.⁶ How a record you hold sits beside a clinic's portal is covered in personal health record vs patient portal.

Using a combined record well

Use the combined record to follow your history and share it with the clinicians you choose. Take anything new, such as a changed result or a letter you do not follow, to a clinician who knows your history.

Share what each clinician needs and withdraw access when that care ends. If anything feels urgent, call your local emergency number straight away.

Where to start

This week, write the list of everywhere that has treated or tested you, and send two requests, one to the clinic you see most and one to the laboratory that ran your last blood test.

As copies arrive, add them to your record, check names, dates and medicines, and bring it to your next appointment, where your clinician sees your whole history at once. The guide to preparing for a doctor's appointment shows how to use it in the room.

Frequently asked questions