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572651 tn?1530999357

Personal Heath Records

I didn't want to post this at the end of the medical records discussion that is going on for fear it might be overlooked.  If you don't have a PHR you may want to look at this site that gives you lots of options, including free online sites that you can use to store your information ....

http://www.myphr.com/what/what_is_a_health_record.asp

What is a Personal Health Record?
The PHR is a tool for collecting, tracking, and sharing important, up-to-date information about your health or the health of someone in your care. Using a PHR should help you make better health decisions and improve the quality of your care by allowing you to access and use information needed to communicate effectively with others about your healthcare.

You are ultimately responsible for making decisions about your health.
You should have access to your complete health information.
Information in your PHR should be accurate, reliable, and complete.
You should have control over how your health information is accessed, used, and disclosed.
A PHR may be separate from and does not normally replace the legal medical record of any provider.


Be well, be prepared,
Laura

3 Responses
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486038 tn?1300063367
Hi there!
I studied PHR's in school throughout this year, and it is a wonderful too that everyone needs to build. That being said, you NEED to be very careful about the site's you choose to put your personal information online. This is very risky business, as right now, it is a very new field and not well regulated.

For an emergency situation, it is better advised in the health information field to wear a medical alert bracelet and possibly also a bracelet if you have advance directives. This will help the emergency process.

If it is not an emergency, then you should have along a copy of the paper PHR that you have built at home from the copies of lab, tests, etc. that you have requested from EACH of your doctors and placed in a 3-ring binder. This is helpful, and shows that you care.

If you do feel very comfortable with a online site you have found to build a PHR, go ahead, but make sure to also build a paper PHR as well.

Good luck!
~Sunnytoday~
Helpful - 0
572651 tn?1530999357
I would love to take the credit for finding this but it was a link off the American Heart Association page.  For heart patients, some of this info can literally mean the difference between life and death -the records need to be straight and complete in case of a cardiac event - time is muscle!  

I hope everyone here will take the time to read this and start working on their own PHR.

My best,
Laura
Helpful - 0
335728 tn?1331414412
This website is very informative and I can see it being incredibly helpful to many of us.  It gives an indication of just how important it is to have all of your Medical Information in a place that is accessible to you and your loved ones.  

I would like to thank Laura for making this accessible to all of us.  This is your timeline with more information and you can choose how to store your data...be it in a file folder at home to storage sites online.

Personally, I would prefer to have my information within arms reach and I don't know that I am comfortable with giving my medical information to an online storage site but to each their own.  This website reminds us of all the doctors that we may have seen over the years and how important some of these records from all doctors and specialists may be.

I think you should all take the time to have a peek at this, I think it will be worth your while!

Again Laura, thanks for the input...we sincerely appreciate the effort you made!

Lots of Hugs,

Rena
Helpful - 0
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