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Health Records Online…What a Great Idea!!!
This is a subject that has been in the National news this week. Google has joined with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to test out a service where patient data is stored online. This is being done on a volunteer basis.
There are other services online where records can be stored and then accessed by other doctors as needed.
I really like the idea in that second opinions would be a lot easier to obtain if the entire medical history of a patient was available online. It would make it so records could be viewed anywhere in the country (or world for that matter) and in some cases the patient wouldn’t even have to be there…imagine…giving access to a top team at a major medical center to view your information, from virtually anywhere!
Security is an issue of course, but it seems like with a company like Google, who could potentially be sued for disclosing them, they would be sure to make it hard for hackers to get to the info.
Microsoft has been storing medical records online for awhile now…It actually makes sense to store them with a company who basically knows the ins and outs of the Internet/WWW better than anyone.
here are a few links:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/21/google.records.ap/index.html
http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/solutions/electronichealthrecords.mspx
What are your thoughts?
Karen
Caregiver for my Wonderful Husband Angelo, who has Metastatic Bladder Cancer.Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.
4 Replies-
WOW Ian…just think if they had put that money into bladder cancer research!!!
Pat -
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I think its good and bad at the same time. Having gotten all my discharge summaries from the various institutions i was treated at i found some glaring errors which i’m having a heck of a time getting changed…imagine my surprise when i found in Cleveland Clinics records that i had a heart attack…..where did that come from…well actually i do know where it came from…the technicians at Memorial Sloan who misread my ekg and the particular waves that a mitral valve prolapse produces…somehow that made it into my records even though my cardiologist confirmed i’ve never had a MI. As yet 5 yrs later i haven’t been able to get it changed. Also i had a horrible allergic reaction to something in Cleveland…i was so out of it I cannot remember when it happened…or what caused it…and that is not in the notes. I’m told it may be in the nurses notes….where are they?
And also with a system like this then also the CT scans or whatever scans should be also able to be viewed online as diagnosis on paper will differ from pathologist to pathologist as i just experienced with a recent CT scan.
Pat -
Hi Karen,
I do believe online records has major pros and cons. It is a sad world when one has to fear “hackers” while dealing with cancer or any other major illness. But for those who can get 2nd or 3rd opinions by only online means – what a great thing. If they can make secure pages for credit cards one would think they could also do the same for med records.
I think medical alert offers online storage of some med info – I would be curious as to the success there.
God Bless, Holly
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