Wednesday, June 22, 2005
New internet services allow patients to upload medical records
[Sarah Rubenstein, "Putting Your Health History Online," The Wall Street Journal, 21 June 2005.]
Consumer driven health care assumes that individuals should be free to engage in consumerism. In other words, if I don't like the services or prices of a particular provider, I should be free to take my business elsewhere. But there are transaction costs which may discourage such freedom of movement. According to this recent article, one of the most onerous costs - that of keeping updated medical records with you at all times - may be a thing of the past:
Having to fill out pages of questions about your medical history every time you see a new doctor can get old fast. Now, some companies are offering patients a way to cut down on the tedium of the doctor's office clipboard.
The new services, which come amid a broader effort to move the nation's medical records from paper to computers, let patients store their health histories -- from ailments to medications to emergency contacts -- at a single electronic location. The idea is that patients, as well as the medical professionals and family members they designate, can then readily access that information. Some of the services also tout other features, like drug-interaction checkers and daily pill reminders.
Somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people now have so-called "personal health records," in some cases through their employers, in others through their insurers, according to an estimate by the Markle Foundation, a New York not-for-profit that focuses on information technology and public policy.
[Greg Scandlen, "Choice is revolutionizing health care," The Wichita Eagle, 28 September 2004.]
[Sarah Rubenstein, "Putting Your Health History Online," The Wall Street Journal, 21 June 2005.]
Consumer driven health care assumes that individuals should be free to engage in consumerism. In other words, if I don't like the services or prices of a particular provider, I should be free to take my business elsewhere. But there are transaction costs which may discourage such freedom of movement. According to this recent article, one of the most onerous costs - that of keeping updated medical records with you at all times - may be a thing of the past:
Having to fill out pages of questions about your medical history every time you see a new doctor can get old fast. Now, some companies are offering patients a way to cut down on the tedium of the doctor's office clipboard.
The new services, which come amid a broader effort to move the nation's medical records from paper to computers, let patients store their health histories -- from ailments to medications to emergency contacts -- at a single electronic location. The idea is that patients, as well as the medical professionals and family members they designate, can then readily access that information. Some of the services also tout other features, like drug-interaction checkers and daily pill reminders.
Somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people now have so-called "personal health records," in some cases through their employers, in others through their insurers, according to an estimate by the Markle Foundation, a New York not-for-profit that focuses on information technology and public policy.
[Greg Scandlen, "Choice is revolutionizing health care," The Wichita Eagle, 28 September 2004.]
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