Personal Health Record –Necessity or Desire?

You surely make resolutions at the onset of a year, make plans and goals, and track accomplishments. But do you organize and manage the most important part of your life- your health? If not, then maintaining your family’s and your personal medical records definitely needs a place on your ‘to- do list'.

Personal Hospital Assistance

A Personal Health Record (PHR) is more than just a copy of all your medical information, collected from all of your doctors, hospitals, and medical claim form or health insurance providers etc. Sometimes this information can save you the money and inconvenience of repeating routine medical tests and more importantly ensure adherence to treatment. Even when routine procedures do need to be repeated, your PHR can give medical care providers more insight into your personal health story. 

A number of details which one should jot down in one’s PHR include-

• The name, blood group, contact and/or address
• Current heath information, medications(dosage), treatments and supplications, and one’s medical history
• Allergies, health problems(chronic), major surgeries or illnesses(with dates), hospitalizations
• Family history: history of illness in family, deaths, major health problems in family (heart diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes etc.).
• Health insurance claim form

PHRs or personal health records can be looked upon as a coherent set of documents encompassing all the little details to the important aspects of your health care and medical life. They can be either electronic that is online in the virtual world or handwritten hardcopies as in files. If you aren’t comfortable or do not want to be connected through the web then the simple but efficient DIY journal will hold together your medical records in more or less the same manner.  Saving all health records in one place can prove to be a life saver in case of emergencies or when one is out and away from home and gets sick or when there is a change in doctors and pharmaceuticals and the treatment subsequently. Not to mention that saving them online would do away with maintaining those bulky files and always have your records handy on your smart phones.  Not only are they quicker and safer but also help in keeping a track of your various appointments, health issues, medications and of the like which can otherwise prove to be quite a challenge.

Safe and simple, keeping such records help to:

• Plan or re-evaluate your treatment efficiently.
• Facilitate communications as one keeps connected thereby providing caregivers and doctors with a better system and enabling them to communicate and coordinate with patients faster and easier. This of course proves to be more efficient with the online based tracking and managing of the records.
• Keep track of family health history linked to personal records and reveal family pattern of diseases enabling early detection of inherited genetic or chronic illnesses.
• Makes you and your family actively involved in your healthcare.

Like all other records, medical records management to provide great convenience in one program. An important thing to keep in mind is that they are regularly updated, completed and easily accessible. 

So go ahead and get organized with this hassle free method and manage health better for a safer, happier, and healthier you..