Keeping Your Own Electronic Medical Record

Here are four sites to check out: Google Health; Microsoft HealthVault; RevolutionHealth; WebMD Personal Health Record. For the do-it-yourself EMR, here is some guidance.

The boring part:

Interested consumers will in many cases spend hours tracking down information from doctors, hospitals and labs, and then painstakingly entering the data into the electronic record themselves.

The potential benefits:

One Cleveland Clinic patient with hypertension, a long-distance truck driver, was able, from the road, to feed his doctor daily results from his blood pressure monitor. Based on that data, the doctor instructed the man to adjust his medications, and the driver was able to stabilize his blood pressure in a matter of days.

The potential dangers:

You must be vigilant about updating your files every time a medical event takes place…… "If your doctor is under the impression the records are up to date, but a prescription is missing or a surgery follow-up isn't listed….. it can be dangerous."

Comments (7)

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  1. Bruce says:

    I don’t think do-it-yorself is going to work very well. Where these things seem to work is in conjunction with a provider.

  2. Nancy says:

    I agree with Bruce. This is going to work best if a doctor or clinic is inputting the information.

  3. Nick Tazik says:

    Great talk at Belmont University today, John. The information you offered regarding the government subsidies that are provided to Americans with private insurance was particularly surprising and enlightening. Thank you for informing my perspective on health reform. I’ll be watching the blog for more great stuff!

  4. Call CareNet says:

    It is very important to stay on top of your health and have a check up at least once a year to ensure that you remain healthy. Many health problems are curable but you need to catch them in time. Do not wait to go see a doctor because it may be too late.

  5. Devon Herrick says:

    The Mayo Clinic has launched a no-cost Web site that will allow users to create personal health records using Microsoft technology. [https://healthmanager.mayoclinic.com/Default.aspx] The clinic's site will provide customized information for users, such as checkup reminders and current and previous health issues. The site recommends certain screenings or suggests articles for users to read. However, because of privacy reasons, the site does not send e-mail reminders.

  6. Lori says:

    I have a HealthVault account and I can see the value in it, but you are correct in that it takes a lot of diligence to create the files. More important will be the ability to share them with healthcare providers, otherwise it’s just a nice electronic filing system. There are a lot of good applications that make HealthVault advantageous for just everyday things, like tracking weight loss.

  7. Reilly says:

    Love this sample, lkoeod through the code, got lost a few times, but it should be easier to follow when i can look at it in something other than notepad. I see a lot of stuff in here I’ve never touched before, like the vertex’s and half the calls to spritebatch.. I would love to see a full blown tutorial done out of this.. =) Otherwise, awesome..will have to play and see how i can use it.. maybe i can start another project I will get 90% done and drop.. =) hehe