In my last post, I outlined the need for Health Record Portability as well as the obstacles to its widespread implementation.  However, there are a few inroads being made.  Here are some of those initiatives.

From the healthcare provider viewpoint, some communities have launched their own Health Information Network (HIN) that enables community physicians, hospitals, labs & other healthcare providers to share their information. You can think of it as a healthcare information utility that supports health information exchange.  This sharing is always dependent upon the consent of the individual patient.  One example with which I am familiar is the East Tennessee Health Information Network (etHIN) in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The hospital systems & physician practices pay a fee to etHIN to be able to share their patients’ health information.  One feature that would have helped me to keep track of my pneumonia vaccine is a Vaccination Gateway that etHIN provides.

But what can you do as a patient, especially if you live in a community without a health information network?  From a non-technological perspective, you can keep paper copies of your medical record.  Usually you’ll want to organize them by practice or medical issue, but if you have some condition that gets monitored by some lab test, you’ll want to group them together.

There is a more modern approach that you may want to consider if your physician’s EMR system supports it.  Microsoft has a free cloud storage application called HealthVault that can help you manage all your electronic medical information in one place.  Once you set up your account, you can ask your physicians (past and present) who use an electronic medical record to send your files to your HealthVault account.  Not all EMRs can provide your records in a format compatible with HealthVault.  It is far from perfect, but it is a beginning.  Hopefully we will see more EMRs that are compatible with HealthVault in the years to come.  You can also upload any records that you have scanned into your computer. A great feature is the ability to create an Emergency Medical Information card that includes your allergies, medications you take, health conditions you have and emergency contact information.  It also has access information so an Emergency Room physician can view your HealthVault record.  It can be folded to fit in your wallet or purse.

Next time I’ll share some examples of situations I’ve encountered where health information sharing just hasn’t worked and, in a later post, some possible ways to prevent these problems.  As always, please share your thoughts and comments.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob