This is vey interesting. The company my husband works for is investigating this as an option for its employees.
Patient-Controlled Health Records Could Change Future of Research
Used wisely, they may spur discoveries, but some warn privacy needs regulation:
Increasing patient control of health records could dramatically change how medical research is conducted, say Children's Hospital Boston researchers.
In a Sounding Board article in the April 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers noted that the shift to personally controlled health records (PCHRs) will give patients and doctors easier access to records during clinical care and will also have a major impact on the conduct of biomedical research.
With PCHRs, patients have Web-based access to almost all the information -- such as lab tests, diagnoses, medications and clinical notes -- in their medical records. They can decide who gets to see that information.
"Giving patients access and control over their medical records will unlock a whole new world where researchers will suddenly be able to recruit hundreds, thousands, possibly millions of patients from all over the world, and have access to new data sets and populations. Imagine the possibilities this will bring and the impact it will have on bringing research to the bedside," article co-author Dr. Isaac Kohane, of the hospital's informatics program, said in a prepared statement.
http://healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=614559
I would sign up for this in a minute. Things that are supposed to be sent automatically among my daughter's drs. never end up in her chart. I know it is just the quantity of records they deal with, but it is frustrating to go to the ped and he doesn't have notes from the last ped rheum visit, etc. If it wasn't there, and I could pull it up myself, it would be wonderful.
I like the idea too. It would certainly make things much easier for my family.
Reading all your posts, I've been amazed that so many of you get to see so many of your test results!! The only test results that are shared with me are from the fortnightly bloods I have taken. The Lab faxes these out to me.
I have Anthem insurance and at their website, I can see the prescriptions I've had fille, the doctors diagnosis, and the tests I've taken, but I can't see doctor's notes or the test results. That would be cool if I could see the test results on-line.
Snowowl, I'm sure there are a lot of doctors that toss down judgemental notes, but sometimes it is necessary. There are patients that are very good at looking and speaking very innocent, and yet they have been thrown out of different practices for seeking presciription narcotics. It's nice to get a heads-up.Bubbly, lol.....I have yet to see that in any doctors notes that come through the office. How funny. I didn't mean to be harsh, I just see a lot of people always ragging on the doctors office, etc., etc., and there is a lot of work to keep an office going. There are people that hop doctors offices until they find one that will give them the drugs they want or the tests they want, etc. etc. A lot of the times the doctor's "take" on a patient is helpful to other specialists, etc. Having a doctor make mistakes by giving the wrong meds, etc., etc., is horrible.I think some keep two sets of notes anyway. And call each other, so none of that goes on paper.