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Benefits of Personal Health Records
Posted by | Posted in Personal Health | Posted on 03-06-2009
Gone are the days when people used to carry their health records in unwieldy files when visiting a doctor. The advances in technology made it is possible to carry the entire documents in pocket-sized devices like CD-ROMs, pen drives and now on dedicated websites who take the responsibility of saving and updating medical data. To keep a track of our medical history and share and use it when necessary, we need to create a personal health record. Let us try to understand what personal health records can do for us and how can they make our life easy.
A personal health record is the consolidated information related to health; stored and managed by an individual. Today, personal health records are also popularly known as, personal health diary, patient health record, or personal medical records. While the concept of personal health records is not new, it has evolved from a stage when these records were stored by the medical professionals and health care providers; to a stage where each person today is keeping their health records by using various technologies such as websites, personal health software and so on. The primary purpose of personal health records is:
· To keep a track on personal health and
· To help the doctors for providing better care through the valuable health information.
Ideally, a personal health record should contain every single bit of information related to your health. The information stored in your personal health record may differ according to the software or service providers, but any personal health records will contain the crucial health information. Some of the most common parameters that a personal health record contains are as follows:
· Name of the patient, birth date, blood type
· Date of last physical tests or screenings
· Major illnesses or diseases occurred in past with dates
· List of medicines and dosages taken by you
· Allergies and chronic diseases
· History of illnesses in your family
This piece of information can be very important in case of emergencies and can save your life.
Personal health records have numerous benefits not only to the users but also to the health care systems and physicians. A detailed health record can be used by physicians to take important decisions in time of emergencies. Some of the significant benefits of personal health records are as follows:
· Empowering patients: personal health record allows the patients to access, update and verify their own medical records. With the use of personal health records, one can also set reminders for health maintenance services.
· Improves patient-doctors relationship: this is especially true when you have a family doctor or a physician to whom you frequently visits. Doctors find it easy to communicate with patients who own personal health records.
· Improves patient’s safety: As the patient keeps updating their health records, it helps them to identify missed procedures and services, drug alerts, and important test results.
· Delivers efficient care: personal health records also avoid duplicative testing and unwanted or unnecessary services.
· Cost-effective tool: patients can save huge amounts which are otherwise spent unnecessary on malpractice costs.
· Privacy: personal health records can be kept confidential by using passwords. Today, most of us want our health records to be safe and secure in our hands so that no one misuses it. Personal health records allow patients to keep their health documents safe and secured.
The list of benefits of maintaining personal health records is never-ending and personal health records are slowly and steadily becoming a basic necessity to keep ourselves and our beloved ones healthy. After all, a small initiative towards health can reap great rewards. So, step ahead and create your Personal Health Record!!!!
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Help answer the question about personal health
The best place to get personal health coverage for an international student studying nursing?I am about to enter the Clinical Phase of LPN (License Practical Nurse) programme soon and one of the requirements it that i have personal health coverage…..i am an International student and presently have no health insurance…..i need some guidelines on how to go about getting coverage at a reasonable price…can anyone assist with some serious advice…..much appreciated…thank you.
You will not be denied on any group policy. If there are any health concerns that can be traced back to the drug use you may have a waiting period before those conditions will be covered but that will depend upon what those conditions are and the insurance company.
No,
too long.
@higashi001 LOL! So true. We’ll let UNIX take care of healthcare XD.
@higashi001 It’s nothing new. Microsoft has been developing health care technologys for years now.
@maoomph Quite a bit of this stuff is acctually around right now, it just isn’t cost effective
Thanks for all the cut and paste garbage.
Every one of these things is either exactly like it already is with private insurance, or an outright lie or distortion – and I've read them all and looked at the text for every one.
@HaDeSakudo Are you implying some kind of racism and consequence…?
Just kidding
All of it, but these are the worst.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free
healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Health card.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community
organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services;
translation: illegal aliens
I'm glad there's so many people out there that are willing to fight this tragedy of freedom. This is something the hard-working American who wishes to remain free needs to investigate and vote against. Raise your voices, we don't want it!
All that and not even halfway through the 1008 page proposal.
I'll bet that most of the idiots who voted in favor of it don't know that that crap is in it. We need to clean house, and senate and then the other house.
It’s all very Middle-Class isn’t it with no poor or unemployed…
I know it's not good. Which is why I got healthy.
It is the biggest load of BS to be handed to the fools who fall for it. John Conyers even asks why he should read it. He feels he needs two lawyers to help him interpret it. How did these people get elected, would be my question.
We are living in a country under assault by it's own government. People need to wake up and stand up to this corruption before we lose all of our freedoms.
Edit: I am with you Ruth!
~
this gonna be in 500 years…
yeah, there is a lot of controversy about this bill- i hear about it on the news all the time- a lot of people are upset. you are not alone.
The furture looks boring
Well the colour white pretty much stands for a clean and sterile environment, which the future will be like i guess haha.
Not with a socialized medical system