Today, your medical records reside largely in paper binders and on doctor's clip board. But soon, doctors and hospitals will keep your personal medical history in electronic files that are easily shared.

Electronic medical records help your doctor respond quickly to your medical needs, but current law allows that information to be shared much more widely than you may think.

Hospitals and doctors can share your medical information with "health care related businesses" that include sales people, fundraisers and others. This means dozens and maybe hundreds of different people can look at your most sensitive and personal information for a variety of purposes.

Several bills now before Congress will establish a national system for electronic medical records, but none of these bills adequately protect your privacy. Furthermore, medical records routinely contain errors and these bills don't give you a right to review and correct mistakes that may affect your ability to get insurance, credit or other services in the future.

Members of Congress don't usually hear from ordinary people when they consider highly technical bills like this one, so your email can make a big difference. Hospitals, doctors, marketers, and database technicians all have a interest in the easy exchange of information, and your privacy is a secondary concern to them. Only you can tell Congress how important your medical privacy is to you.

So take a moment. Tell Congress to make privacy a priority, and give you control over your own medical information. And please, tell your friends so that they too can tell their own lawmakers to improve electronic medical record privacy standards for everyone.