Improving the quality of patient care: the role of patient preferences in the clinical record.

Patients are an important but overlooked participant in health information management. Patients serve as a source of self-monitoring data and for self-report of essential judgments such as preference for treatment and preferences for clinical outcomes. As the deliberations regarding the Computer-Based Patient Record initiative continue, decisions must be made about what patient-specific information will be entered in the record. In consideration of the mounting evidence that patient preferences represent an essential component in many health care decisions, it is timely to advocate for including patient preferences in the patient record. This represents one aspect of the patient role in health care information management.