Storing and Accessing Medical History

[Girly3800]

My husband is the one with Wegener's, but I am the one that keeps all of his medical history. Three plus years into this disease, enough blood work to sink a ship, numerous ailments, surgeries, and specialists, and I am overwhelmed with all the paper. If everything had been done in one medical system it would be easy to use their online systems to track everything. Alas he bridges multiple systems and even states. I routinely take dozens of pieces of paper to medical appointments - and even images.

So, my question is - has anyone tried any of the apps available for storing and tracking medical records? If so, would you mind sharing your experiences.

I thank you all for any insight or practical experience you can offer.

Aldena

[whatthewhat]

Sorry, Aldena, I don't. As the mom of a pediatric (don't get me started on docs who don't let me see my child's records!!) Weggie, we keep old-school folders. One for lab results (that we can easily take with us to the e.r. or appts,) one for visit summaries, one for billing misc, and a journal-type book in which we write our own notes or questions for doctors' visits (this also keeps each of us parents in the loop no matter who takes her to the doc.) I do keep photos online, but I don't think that's what you're asking.

[Birdie]

has anyone tried any of the apps available for storing and tracking medical records?

Aldena,

I wrote my own program. It works well for me and I continually make improvements. I've been thinking it might be useful to other people but it's not ready for distribution. I'll give it away if I get to the point anyone else could use it. Enough sincere interest could be a motivating factor.

I keep all records on my laptop, cell phone, USB drive, 7" tablet and a backup micro SD card. All in one place, er... uhm... a bunch of places as copies. I can pull out the tablet at a doctors appt to get answers for the doctor, or let them look at various scans going back to the very first scan when I was diagnosed. I bring seperate lists of every prescription, every diagnosis, every doctors contact info, notes from every doctors appt, etc. All on a simple Windows tablet which cost me $87.00 and fits in a large pocket. Back-up copies prevent loss of so much work.

Flatbed printer scanners don't cut it for anything but the occasional scan. I bought a good/fast scanner with sheet feeder to get the documents into the computer. It's a Brother ADS-1500W. It's tiny, heavy, and cost about $250.00. Worth ten times that for the benefit of quickly scanning documents.

So you probably guessed it by now, I'm desperate to make best use of a doctor's time.

Gary

[Girly3800]

Thanks Gary. What did you write your system in? I too think a fast scanner is worth the money. Many of my husband's records are available for download so I'd like to take advantage of those as well. I keep meticulous records - it just is becoming quite the burden. Contributing to the burden is that his rheumatologist is closing his private practice and moving to a large health system - not sure how those old records are going to transfer since the doctor used the system that he was affiliated with for everything. H even scanned in records from other providers.

I've done some research on commercially available applications or systems and they all seem to scratch the bare surface.

Aldena

[Girly3800]

Thank you. Yes, I drag all that stuff around with me too. Don't quite use school folders but have filled many other types of folders. I tend to file chronologically and would also like a way to sift and sort some of the information.

Aldena

[Birdie]

Thank you. Yes, I drag all that stuff around with me too. Don't quite use school folders but have filled many other types of folders. I tend to file chronologically and would also like a way to sift and sort some of the information.

Aldena

My point is to make it all digital. I bring no folders, no papers, no deciding what to take because a semi truck full of records will fit in the memory of a pocket device. I have ALL records instantly available without digging around in a lap full of folders only to find I didn't bring THAT information. With proper back-up you're not risking loss or damage of the records AND you have ALL the records including things like scans which you can't bring in a folder. Of course you must first get things like CT scans from the provider who did the scan.

So, your school folders are replaced by digital "Folders". That's even what they're called on the computer, it's the same thing, but you can easily bring it all once it's scanned/digitized.

It looks like this:

Untitled.jpg

Seven thousand files in my medical history from only four and a half years. All in my pocket at all times, I'm covered in an emergency/unexpected situation. Plus I've always got pictures of the birds to bore people with.

[Jaha]

I had a friend, whom kept his records on a flash drive that he wore around his neck on a chain. His wife kept it updated and organized. It came in really handy several times in his life. They had to life flight him from a concert we were attending once, and when we got to the hospital 2hrs after with his wife, the staff was very grateful to have all the info on that drive they needed. I always thought that was a great idea. I think there are some larger facilities with EMR's programs that will allow you to have a vault to scan into.

[Birdie]

the staff was very grateful to have all the info on that drive they needed.

I considered placing it all on my web site and just carrying the URL, maybe on a bracelet. A bit uncomfortable having it in a public place with crawlers databasing and selling it in giant collections of data. I have yet to find any medical facility that will use a flash drive due to security & virus concerns. So for now I just carry my own pocket PC with the data on it.

[drz]

Some thing I use that is less intense is an app on Ipod call MyMedical: It is available on other formats too:

My Medical ? The Personal Medical Record for You, The Patient

My doctors often look at it to check my list of meds, allergies, recent lab work or address for my other doctors. One could add more if you link it to a laptop or Ipad with keypad.

[Girly3800]

Thank you - that is one of the products I have been looking at. Glad to see someone I "know" uses it. I have Apple devices so the i versions would work for us. Having just spent an hour and a half with the rheumatologist today I am ready to take the plunge and make the investment in time to do this.