Looking for health record keeping tools
September 21, 2016 9:52 AM   Subscribe

Is there something like LinkedIn but for health?

I am looking for a service that ideally would help me:

*Compile all and every diagnosis, treatment, surgery in my past and as they occur

*Keep track of my doctors, their contact info, my advance directives, follow ups and pending health issues

*Allow me to either enter or share information with others, like my parents, my sisters, or my husband for several purposes:

- to understand if there are things I might be at risk for (for example if a condition runs in the family)

- to communicate complete information if I ever need to take one of my relatives to the hospital (I have been in this situation and it's not pleasant when you are panicking about your mom's stroke and forget to say she had a heart attack in 2011)

- to authorize specific relatives to see my info

- to see their advance directives if I need to

Do you know if something like this exists? I know my insurance website and a local hospital keep records like that, but neither of those alternatives would allow me to connect with relatives or to enter information if I saw a doctor out of the specific health system.
posted by Tarumba to Health & Fitness (2 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
It looks like the term you're looking for is "personal health record." Wikipedia lists Microsoft Health Vault and Patients Like Me as examples of web-based PHRs; you may find others if you Google that term. It's also possible that your insurance company has a PHR included in their online services; Kaiser Permanente has one called My Health Manager. Here's some more information on PHRs (as well as links to several PHRs) from the US government.
posted by ourobouros at 10:17 AM on September 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


My doctor has something similar to what you want through a secure portal where I can add family medical history as stuff comes up, and see my bloodwork etc over time , but the integration with other electronic medical records (ie if I got physical therapy at a place not directly linked to it) is poor. It does have the option where I can share my chart with family members after filling out a bunch of disclosures.

There are serious privacy concerns with a system such as you describe, as well as sharing that information with the proper authorities that limit this being more common/better integrated across medial networks.
posted by larthegreat at 10:21 AM on September 21, 2016


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