The payoffs for more personal digital health data are likely to be great—both in terms of improved health as well as the reduced costs that many researchers have posited (although most are quick to add that data on these outcomes is still yet to be seen). Giving individuals more access to their medical records could reduce the number of medical mistakes made each year. "There are just a vast number of errors in our medical records," deBronkart says. And with patients looking over their own information more frequently, mistakes and oversights are more likely to be caught before they cause harm.

More preventive health decisions made by individuals can also decrease medical care costs down the road. Kashyap explains that personal health records are useful for individuals to make "if-then" decisions to control symptoms or keep an eye on their medication's effectiveness. To help stem the tide of chronic conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, "we hope that we can change people's attitudes toward work, living [and] diet" through personal health records because "that's hard to do when you see the doctor so infrequently," Kashyap says.

"Once you provide information, you empower the patient," she says. Having individualized and portable health information also "can help with chronic disease management," she notes, reminding patients to take their medication or stay on top of symptoms to see when their drug regime or lifestyle should be changed.

Despite all of the cultural and technical challenges of expanding individualized digital health information, the proliferation of this data seems imminent. "I think it's ready for takeoff," Kashyap says.

6 Comments

1. 1. reality_check1 07:07 PM 4/12/10

   Harmon mentions that some doctors will feel threatened and concerned about missing a side effect, etc., but a related issue is the doctor's own confidence in his/her ability to accurately diagnose a medical problem. And with hiding misdiagnoses.
   
   The trend towards the more informed "consumer" is already causing stress among some some clinicians. I experienced this after separating my shoulder. I'm a Type-A information gatherer and engineer, and with a little research, I found I needed a specific type of X-ray for accurate diagnosis. When I arrived at the radiologist, the wrong type (I was pretty darn sure) had been specified. I mentioned this to the original doctor on my followup and she admitted the mistake. However, I didn't realize until that point that the correct X-ray would have changed the treatment and improved my outcome. Now I have a minor but annoying shoulder disability. But hey, I understand mistakes happen. What I *could not* tolerate was her final statement when I challenged her diagnosis. She told me, "We don't like our patients to use the Internet."
   
   I'm not implying that patients are smarter than doctors, but I am asserting that patients have a much higher vested interest in their own health. And many of us are well educated and capable of basic research, and capable of separating the Internet wheat from the chaff.
   
   I think Electronic Health Records will create a whole new behavior on the part of clinicians - one that veers away from recording purely medical information towards forward-looking damage control from potential lawsuits, etc.

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2. 2. JEngdahlJ 11:31 AM 4/13/10

   Federal funding may be encouraging a move toward EHR, but there's more to it than just installing systems. How can healthcare data pooling lead to a better system? More at http://www.healthcaretownhall.com/?p=2193

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3. 3. HITinfo 12:47 PM 4/13/10

   The push for electronic health records is certainly supported by federal government, and in fact, medical providers will even be penalized with lower Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements if they do not adopt an electronic health records system by 2016. This push is not met without resistance, and I think what it comes down to is educating providers and patients about this inevitable shift towards an integrated health information system in medicine so they are informed and prepared for this change. Here are some great resources for information on the Health IT industry:
   http://www.ehrtv.com/
   http://www.ehrscope.com/blog/ and http://www.emrconsultant.com/

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4. 4. andreanis 12:23 PM 4/14/10

   ye That's quite true if on the one hand digitalisation allows
   a better healthcare because of more modern technology
   on the other hand personal datas will be very much subject to
   conflicts of interests/manipulation etc.,since this issue hasn't been as yet totally solved in the digital world (in particular the internet..)

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5. 5. Quinn the Eskimo 02:08 AM 4/15/10

   Well, my doc went all HP notebooks two years ago. After starring at the back of the screen (the new EHR WALL) he hasn't listened to my heart or lungs once! I've got great printouts of his notes, though.
   
   Don't know how that'll help my congestive heart failure. Oh well, progress.

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6. 6. Poaul in reply to Quinn the Eskimo 10:33 AM 5/24/10

   Quite right!!!
   Notes and record keeping is PART of the consultation, not THE consultation. I've just had a disturbing chat with an Australian, where the doctor 99% of the time simply listen to the list of symptoms, and without examination, dispences treatment. I still write my notes by hand, after taking a history and doing an examination, draw up a conclusion and advice treatment. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a far better doctor than a walking MBChB with an HP.

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