Dear Representative/Senator :

I am a [PATIENT/CAREGIVER/MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL] concerned about [DISEASE NAME] and the opportunities presented by health information technology (health IT). People with [DISEASE NAME] have unique needs, and benefit from medical care tailored to those needs. This includes access to genetic testing, specialized drugs and medical devices, information on living with their condition, and more. By passing a law to support health IT, Congress can improve the lives of patients and their families, and make possible historic advances toward better treatments and even cures.

INSERT ONE PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING YOUR ORGANIZATION OR DISEASE COMMUNITY.

Health IT will help patients on a daily basis. With instant and secured access to up-to-date medical records and the latest best-practice information, healthcare professionals can improve diagnoses and treatment, monitor adherence to care plans, eliminate costly and sometimes painful duplicate testing, and provide information on healthy lifestyle choices to make it easier to live with genetic disease.

In addition, researchers in genetic disease need the data only a connected health IT system can generate: documentation of how diseases progress and how treatments work, details of diagnoses and symptoms, demographic information, and more. This will bring us closer to personalized treatments for all diseases.

I urge you to pass a bill that will establish a public-private process to determine standards, federal financial incentives for practitioners to accelerate health IT adoption, and establish federal leadership to resolve critical policy issues such as privacy as this life-saving system is being deployed.

Families and advocacy groups can do many things for patients with genetic disease, but only you as a member of Congress can pass legislation to bring them the benefits of health IT. We urge you to pass a health IT bill in this Congress.

Sincerely,

NAME