A one-period lesson on health record rights

Who holds your health record?

High school, or an introductory college class, in any country. About 45 minutes. Works in civics, health, social studies and computer science. Younger classes can follow the stories on the teacher's screen, so students do not use their own devices.

Goals

• Explain what a health record is and name three places that may hold a piece of one.
• Compare two countries on the same health record right, using the scores and sources on each country's page. In the US, a class can compare two states' laws instead.
• Check a claim about health record rights against a cited source.

What you need

• One device per pair, with a browser
• Sam's week in America (story)
• Aino in Finland (story, for classes outside the US)
• The list of countries, to find each country's page
• One country's page, for example the United Kingdom
• US option: what each state adds to HIPAA (state pages)
• US option: compare state health record laws side by side
• The Carters: an American family, four records (optional story)
• Marcus on the move (optional story)
• How we score

Opener 7 minutes

Ask the class: "Who do you think controls your health record?" Take a show of hands for each answer: you, your doctor, your insurance company, the government, or nobody.

Then put Sam's story on the screen. Read the opening steps together, up to "Who has a piece?" Ask: how many places ended up with part of Sam's record?

Outside the US, you can open with Aino's story, set in Finland, instead. Ask: what can Aino decide about her record, and what can she not decide?

Do not ask students about their own health or their family's.

Activity: compare two countries 23 minutes

Students work in pairs. Each pair opens two countries' pages: your own country and one other. You can also assign pairs of countries, so the class covers more of the world. In the US, pairs can compare two states instead, with the US option in the last step.

If a pair finishes early, start on the discussion questions.

1. Find each country in the list of countries on the home page, and open its page.
2. On each page, find the eight rights compared with nearby countries. For each right, write down both scores out of 100. Mark any gap under 5 points as a tie.
3. Choose one right where the gap is 5 points or more. On each page, read what it says about that right, and copy the name of one source listed under it in the sources.
4. Write two sentences: what the difference means for a person in each country.
5. US option: open Compare states and pick two states. For each row, write down whether the answers are the same or different. Where they differ, open each state's page and copy one short quote from the law, with its name. Note any answer marked "Not checked". Not checked does not mean no: it means no one has checked yet.

Discussion: pick two or three questions 10 minutes

1. After one week of care, Sam's record was in many places. Who should be in charge of putting the pieces together?
2. In the Carters' story, a parent can usually see a 14-year-old's checkup notes, but not always. Why might lawmakers let a teenager agree to some care on her own and keep those notes private? Keep the discussion on the law and this made-up family, not on anyone in the room.
3. Your two countries scored differently on some rights. Should your health record rights depend on where you live?
4. The index names the countries in its lead group together and treats a gap under 5 points as a tie. Why might the authors have chosen not to name one winner?
5. If you compared US states: "No law found" and "Not checked" are different answers. Why does that difference matter when you check a claim?
6. Aino lives in a country in the lead group, but she still cannot have her record deleted. Is a high score the same as full control?

Wrap-up 5 minutes

Exit ticket, on paper: one sentence about a right that one of your countries gives a person or leaves out, and the name of the source on its page where you found it. Pairs who compared US states can name a law instead.

If time allows, ask: which source on the page would you use to prove your sentence to someone who doubts it?

Optional: show the class an AI assistant using the data

If you want to show how an AI assistant can look things up in the index, run the demo yourself, on your own account, on the classroom screen. Students watch and suggest questions out loud; they do not type. Type only questions about laws, scores and the stories. Never type a student's name, or anything about a real person's health, even if a student suggests it.

Before class, check your school's rules on AI tools and your AI provider's current terms. Most AI assistants have a minimum age, and some need a parent's permission. Run the demo on your own account.

The connection address is https://healthrecordrights.com/mcp. It uses MCP, a shared standard that lets an AI assistant read outside data. It needs no sign-in and only reads.

Try the connection at home first. We tested it with Claude Code. The Claude Desktop and claude.ai steps follow Anthropic's own instructions, and we have not tested those screens ourselves.

1. Claude Desktop and claude.ai. Open Customize, then Connectors, choose Add, then Add custom connector. Paste the address and choose no sign-in. A free plan can add one custom connector. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an owner adds it first under Organization settings.
2. Claude Code. Run this command:

   claude mcp add --transport http health-record-rights https://healthrecordrights.com/mcp

3. Other assistants that support MCP, a shared standard that lets an AI assistant read outside data. Most take a server entry like this one. Some name the type streamable-http.

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "health-record-rights": {
         "type": "http",
         "url": "https://healthrecordrights.com/mcp"
       }
     }
   }

Try: What does Brazil score in the Health Record Rights Index? Give the score out of 100, its strongest and weakest right, and link the page.

Try: A post says "Finland is the best country in the world for health records." Is that what the index says? Cite the method and the sources.

Try: For a US class: what does Texas law add to HIPAA on health records? For each question, give the answer, quote the law and link it.

Then show the class how to check the answer: open the page link it gives, and find the same words on the page or in the law.