[curryst]

Just to expand on that, patients aren't the only ones with a legitimate reason to access that data. Insurance companies need copies as well, so they would still want some kind of mass-data portal even if customers don't use it. If you change doctors, they want copies of your old medical records. If you see a specialist, if you go to the hospital, etc, etc. Pharmacies might call and ask if they think there's something weird about a prescription.

Direct patient contacts are a vanishingly small percentage of records requests for a doctor. Doctors could likely handle those via phone, but it doesn't solve the issue of needing an EMR.