New Hampshire, has a law ascribing ownership of medical records to the patient. Canadian law and customs Under Canadian federal law, the patient owns the information contained in a medical record, but the healthcare provider owns the records themselves. The same is true for both nursing home and dental records. In cases where the provider is an employee of a clinic or hospital, it is the employer that has ownership of the records. By law, all providers must keep medical records for a period of 15 years beyond the last entry. The precedent for the law is the 1992 Canadian Supreme Court ruling in McInerney v MacDonald. In that ruling, an appeal by a physician, Dr. Elizabeth McInerney, challenging a patient's access to their own medical record was denied. The patient, Margaret MacDonald, won a court order granting her full access to her own medical record. The case was complicated by the fact that the records were in electronic form and contained information supplied by other providers. McInerney maintained that she didn't have the right to release records she herself did not author. The courts ruled otherwise. Legislation followed, codifying into law the principles of the ruling. It is that legislation which deems providers the owner of medical records, but requires that access to the records be granted to the patient themselves. UK law and customs In the United Kingdom, ownership of the NHS's medical records has in the past generally been described as belonging to the Secretary of State for Health and this is taken by some to mean copyright also belongs to the authorities. German law and customs In Germany, a relatively new law, which has been established in 2013, strengthens the rights of patients. It states, amongst other things, the statutory duty of medical personnel to document the treatment of the patient in either hard copy or within the electronic patient record (EPR). This documentation must happen in a timely manner and encompass each and every form of treatment the patient receives, as well as other necessary information, such as the patient's case history, diagnoses, findings, treatment results, therapies and their effects, surgical interventions and their effects, as well as informed consents. The information must include virtually everything that is of functional importance for the actual, but also for future treatment. This documentation must also include the medical report and must be archived by the attending physician