This toolkit provides guidance resources to help medical examiner and coroner offices (MECs) obtain medical records.
This toolkit, published by the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ) in partnership with the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE) at RTI International and the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), contains a full range of guidance resources, each with descriptions, to help medical examiner and coroner offices (MECs) obtain medical records. Starting with basic templates for requesting medical records, then moving into the value of remote access to electronic medical records/how to obtain them, this document explores different scenarios for how to help standardize data sharing between agencies. This guidance toolkit also provides information regarding Health Information Exchanges (HIE), how to navigate security and privacy concerns, as well as state laws for medical records pertaining to medical examiners and coroners (MECs). In September 2020, the NIJ, along with its FTCOE at RTI International and the National Center for Health Statistics convened a virtual Medicolegal Death Investigation Data Exchange Working Group (MDI-Data-WG) over a 12-month period, forming 3 distinct subcommittees to focus on specific topics. Beginning in 2023, the Workflow Processes subcommittee, whose emphasis is to gather information about the collecting, storing, and reporting processes between MDI offices and others who either use or contribute to MDI data, developed this resource as a guide to obtaining medical records for MDI.