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Has The Time Come for Health Record Banks?

By David Mckinney Jr (Intel) (13 posts) on October 23, 2007 at 3:04 pm

One of the things I'm hoping to leverage on this CoolSW blog is to highlight interesting companies submitted by the user community and bring about deeper discussions.

Recently a CoolSW member (jeffploetz) submitted the application/service called WorldMedcard. The WorldMedcard Personal Health Record can be created by you to store all your personal healthcare information securely online. This information includes your medications, medical history, vaccinations, insurance information, and other key facts about your health. It's a free service brought to you by New York based VRSurgeon, Inc. Essentially they've created a health record bank that consumers need/want to make their complete electronic medical records available for their care. The company web site states they are fully HIPAA compliant and obey best practices guidelines with patient health information and protecting privacy. VRSurgeon also provides advanced healthcare through its internet based telemedicine application.

WorldMedcard is an interesting service and expands on the national debate of patient control. The idea of patient control is not new, but is a key principle in patient-centric Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software. We've seen many of the larger IT corporations move into this segment (for example, Revolution Health, the Health company started by Steve Case of AOL). Health record data banks that are controlled by patients not only address many of the privacy concerns that consumers have over the use of their information, but help move patient-centric healthcare towards a systemic approach to wellness. Personal health record systems may well provide a foundation to help physicians save time, money and improve quality of care. Interesting submission Jeff! Thanks. If others find the WorldMedcard service cool then please vote on it at CoolSW.

Categories: Cool Software

Comments (4)

October 26, 2007 9:20 AM PDT Les Neilson Total Points: 5,676 Status Points: 5,176 Brown Belt

At first it sounds like a good idea, but personally I would still be concerned about data stored online. At a push I might consider a credit card sized "Health Card" with medical info stored in the chip, accessible by a PIN number. In an emergency a doctor/hospital would be able to use the card to access medical information. But a PIN number would make that impossible if I were unable to provide it (unconscious or unable to talk). Maybe a two layer system would be possible (a) allergies, some history info readily availble (b) more personal info only available via PIN. I don't know about USA but here in the UK there is increasing pressure from health insurance companies trying to get more medical information in order to identify higher risk customers. These customers will be asked to pay a higher premium or possibly refused insurance because they are most likely to make a claim. Those who need it most could be excluded from getting the financial help they need. Over here there are still too many cases of personal data "escaping" from supposedly secure online databases. Les

October 26, 2007 12:21 PM PDT David Mckinney Jr (Intel) Total Points: 1,065 Status Points: 565 Brown Belt

@Les - I have similar concerns as you with regard to "escaped" data. I do believe its a solvable issue and one that needs to be worked by the industry. Thx for your comments. Great insight. -dave

November 1, 2007 11:56 AM PDT Daniel Castro

Dave, I think you might be interested in the new report that my group, The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, just released on the merits of health record data banks, and how they overcome many of the current obstacles to widespread electronic health record adoption (especially the cost issue and the privacy issues, which you mention). One of the great thing about health record data banks is that each user can choose his or her own preferred level of security/privacy. So for example, if I want my information to be available to a doctor in case of emergency, I would be able to setup my EHR to allow that. If I am worried that this privilege will be abused, I can turn it off. The report available online here: http://www.itif.org/files/HealthIT.pdf

November 21, 2007 2:05 AM PST Les Neilson Total Points: 5,676 Status Points: 5,176 Brown Belt

Just when I was wondering whether my misgivings on these personal databases were perhaps a bit too strong along comes the British Government Revenue and Customs "losing" 2Cds of data with the personal details of about 25 million people, including bank account details. Alas, all the technical checks and balances we can think of can't compensate for human stupidity. Les

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