Open government advocates urged the Obama administration today to restore a public database of doctor discipline and malpractice records.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors sent a letter to Mary K. Wakefield, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, to protest the removal of the public access file of the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Other protest letters were sent this week by Public Citizen and Consumers Union.

Congress created the data bank in 1986 as a clearinghouse for hospitals and state licensing boards to check doctors' credentials.

A public-use file, stripped of identifying information, had been released each quarter by the health resources administration.

The Post-Dispatch was first to report that the public file had been removed earlier this month so the government could make sure it can't be used to identify individual doctors. In some cases, reporters have used the database to learn about doctors' backgrounds by cross-referencing dates and malpractice payouts with discipline and court records.

The Post-Dispatch used the public file last year in an investigation of the lax and secret system of doctor discipline in Missouri. The investigation led to a new law that gives the state healing arts board more power and gives patients more information about their doctors.

The Kansas City Star also used the database in a recent investigation into doctors with extensive malpractice case histories who had not been disciplined in Missouri or Kansas.

The Kansas City reporter, Alan Bavley, received a letter threatening him with a fine for his use of the database.

"We are troubled that HRSA has taken down a data resource that has been available for years to the general public, the media and researchers," reads the journalism organizations' letter. "Furthermore, we are deeply concerned that HRSA sent a threatening letter on Aug. 26 to Alan Bavley ... By simply using the material HRSA had put online, Bavley did not violate any regulations and should not have been subject to such blatant intimidation."

The government has scheduled a conference call Oct. 13 for users of the public file to discuss its future.