rooster wrote:mattman wrote:
My doc has all my records right there in his file because I have been going to the same practice for 9 years. Anytime I go to see him it is a quick 10 minutes in and out. I will ask the doc next time I see him, but I believe most docs see 40 to 50 patients per day. Even when the records are right in front of them, they do not have the time to thoroughly review them.
I am trying to get on the Obama bandwagon with a central national medical records program. But I need some logic, not just emotion. Mattman, could you give me some specific examples of how this might "vastly" improve diagnosis and treatment?
BTW, I understand some of you have "no problem" with having your medical records in a central electronic repository. But do you insist on taking your fellow citizens kicking and screaming into the repository with you? I don't think these citizens will object to you going in as long as you don't send them the bill for the system.
Lessee...couple of different things here
I guess first I'd say I didn't see anywhere in this topic the idea coming up that anyone HAD to do anything with records. It was just a question of if I'd trust Google with them, which I do. I'd very much love to see a central repository for medical records. However, if any individual person wanted to take part of it is up to them. I honestly don't care what John, Bob or Sally do. If there was a decent central place I'd love it if they did take part simply because it could lower everyones risk and costs but hey - to each their own. I've never been a proponent of any system really that forces anyone to do anything, least of all something as minor as an online records storehouse. (Minor as compared to things like laws that keep people from being allowed to walk in my house, etc. That's the sort of stuff I DO support forcing people to comply with! )
I'm not sure how or where Obama came into this. My comments have nothing to do with him or any other public figure so I can't really respond to that. Again, I was only replying to the thread topic of 'Would I trust my info to Google'.
How do I think it would help? Here are a couple of quick examples:
At a recent meeting of staff at the hospital I work at the topic of Electronic Records and unified record keeping came up. A mother had related a story to one of our hospitals about how grateful she was that we'd been able to centralize all the records of our assosciated doctors, their clinics and offices, our clinics and offices, hospitals, etc. All of it's been unified and centralized. She had a child that has had some serious medical issues. She talked about how she normally had to keep copies of xrays and lab reports and all sorts of other stuff and take them around whenver they had to go somewhere. She'd been out and had a crisis come up with her son and rushed off to the nearest ER. The doc there on duty of course had never seen the child and she didn't have copies of the records. The doc was able to pull up on a tablet PC all the childs info right there at the bedside immediately. It not only exponentially sped up the treatment it allowed the doc to see disparate information that normally would have been scattered across maybe a dozen different independent systems and therefore let the doctor know exactly what to do without risking making any guesses. Needless to say she was so happy and relieved that if she were here she'd be the first one supporting a centralized system accesible across a much wider field then just our health system.
Another great example - my father. He's had some pretty unique medical problems over his lifetime. Some of them are potentially life threatening and potentitally hereditary. A couple of years ago I started experiencing some symptoms of one of them. Well, this is an extremely rare and difficult problem to diagnose. Plus it comes in 2 forms - 1 is almost always hereditary and the other isn't. So we go to contact his old doctor who did the surgery to get copies of my Dads records to find out what kind of tumor he had. Bad news - the doctor retired in 2000. His records are gone. There wasn't really any sort of place to have sent them at the time. Now my options are either to have exploratory surgery, wait until something get bads enough to put me in the hospital with symptoms that make it explicity clear what's going on, or hope that I don't have this. You're damn right I wish his records had been sent to a central record place that exists outside the doctor.
Another example - you say you've been seeing the same doc for years now. That's awesome. That's the sort of relationship that you can't even put a value on. However - let's say you are travelling and for some reason are on your own out in, hell let's say Montana (If you actually live in Montana then pretend it's Nebraska!). You get in a car accident and are unconcious. You go to the hospital. If the doctors there can get your name off your license and go look up all your medical info you think things are going to go better for you? That's a pretty extreme situation but you also better believe that something similar happens just about every day somewhere.
There are many other sorts of examples which I don't think anyone would really have a difficult time envisioning. But again - I stress this - if being a part of such a system is not your thing than fine. Don't be a part of it. I think it's your loss but hey, it's a free country!
Now, this is all my opinion obviously and I support it with the caveat that this has to be a system that is as secure as is possible. But a great many of us do our banking and shopping online and we trust sites like Amazon and Wachovia with our most personal information and so far they've been pretty damn safe. I'd certainly trust my health information - which is far less damaging if it gets out - to a system that is similarly secure.
