Patient records can be given to patients in .pdf format (human readable) and also one of two government specified HL7 formats (CCR and CCD.) The MU certification makes all vendors give patients/doctors the ability to download one of the format (CCR or CCD), but all vendors have to be able to read both formats.

The MU guidelines did a great job of forcing all of the vendors to adopt one of these two standards and to understand them both.