Tracking Your Health: Better Information Means Better Conversations with Your Doc

Ever wish you had the same access to your health records as your checking account?  How about a central place to store all of your health information—from over-the-counter medications to lab results to records from your different doctors?  If you are struggling to manage your health information and wish it were easier, you're not alone.

AccessMyHealth.org is a partnership of Washingtonians—patients, doctors and others—that is exploring ways to improve patients’ access to their personal health information with online personalized health records.

In our current healthcare system, doctors own the medical records they create for their patients and they keep them at their practice site. A federal law, known as Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, governs privacy of those records, giving doctors’ ability to share a patient’s information with other doctors, health plans and others for the purposes of “treatment, payment or operations.”  Although HIPAA regulations make it easier for doctors to share information among themselves, it hinders doctors from sharing it with others outside the healthcare industry.

AccessMyHealth.org, convened by the Washington State Health Care Authority, is helping patients take ownership of their health by finding safe ways to gather and store their information to share with their doctors, family members and others.

Online personalized health records would allow patients to have an electronic copy of the records kept by their doctors to share with whomever they decide needs it—an emergency room doctor, pharmacist, family member or caregiver, even the school nurse.  Patients could conveniently gather the information currently scattered among different doctors' offices; and share their own health information.

Creating this complete picture of your health and the healthcare you’ve received may be the single most important thing you can do to improve your health and the quality of healthcare you receive. It gives you the ability to participate in your care in new ways—like comparing the information you and your doctor have to make sure you are working together effectively.

Get involved and find out more. Go to www.AccessMyHealth.org to find out how to:

• Become a volunteer in one of the Health Care Authority's three pilot projects, testing the feasibility and usefulness of online health record banks.
• Take one of our surveys to share your opinions. 
• Educate yourself with the many resources on the AccessMyHealth.org web site.

Other Resources:
Access My Health