Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Personal Health Records Could Save Your Life In Medical Emergencies

Expert Author Catherine Collins
Imagine you are on a routine business trip to a foreign country. You collapse after your dinner at a fancy sea food restaurant. On arrival to the hospital, under the current fragmented health care system, retrieving your medical record is difficult, answers to questions whether you are allergic to any seafood or your previous medication history or even your primary physician contact details are difficult to obtain. You will be treated as any other emergency arrived patient. On discharge from the hospital you will carry no more than a paper based record of your medical history.
What are the probabilities of this episode recurring? And how can you make a note that you may be allergic to certain kind of sea food? Can you carry this vital medical information with you always?
Digital Personal Health Record can answer these questions. Digital personal health records enable people to store their vital health information in an easy to use format. It could be in memory keys like USB drives or in Compact Discs.However, Memory sticks or USB drives are popular as they are easy to use and carry around.Also the data in them could be repeatedly changed.
The basic health information that you should be carrying around in these USB drives are your personal contact information, emergency contact information and health insurance contact details. Along with medical or surgical history and medication history. History of any allergy to medicines and also any other food types should be part of your emergency information kit.
These could be easily created in a word document and stored in your USB drive. You could also identify this USB drive with a sticker stating that it is your health information file. The only danger of this method is that if you lose your USB drive, all your health information along with contact details are lost.
To safeguard against this you need to purchase a commercially available USB drive with stored template for health information along with a pass word protection. These small precautions will help you to better organize your health care data and help physicians to optimize their treatment to you in case of emergency.
If individuals carry portable personal record with them always, physicians on their arrival to hospital in case of any emergencies can rapidly establish the patient's medical antecedents. On their departure from the hospital they can carry their updated medical treatment history all the time, everywhere. This will enable an individual to maintain a record of their health information in illness. Physicians can deliver better optimized care to patients who have their complete health records.
Disclaimer:
This article is for informational purpose only and is in no way intended to be a substitute for medical consultation with a qualified professional. The author encourages Internet users to be careful when using medical information. If you are unsure about your medical condition, consult a physician.
Reference:
http://www.open.medicdrive.org
Open MedicDrive is a collaborative Wiki for advancing and educating about the role of Health care Information Technology in Personal Health Record Management.
Ms.Catherine Collins has spent nearly a decade in writing about health care topics. She has published her work on health care management in several leading publications in online media.Her vision is to help people to take care of their health with aid of current technologies.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Catherine_Collins

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