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Organize Your Personal Records And Vital Information – Quickly And Easily!
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What is PHR, Personal Health Record?

PHR or Personal Health Record is a list of significant illnesses, chronic diseases or medical conditions you have had in the past and the treatments you have received. It contains information on the medications prescribed for treatment, as well as lab reports, notes and observations made by your doctors, etc.

PHRs can also include any information about your health, especially that your doctor may not be aware of, such as your exercise routines, hereditary illnesses or changes in your dietary habits. Any information from your medical history which can help your doctor to diagnose you better is usually included in a PHR.

Usually, healthcare providers keep their records of your health but since you might have visited different physicians or specialists, your information will be scattered and incomplete. A particular healthcare provider will only have information on what he would have treated you for. You can give the healthcare provider a better insight on your ailment by providing a PHR.

Another vital importance of PHR lies in the use of monitoring chronic diseases. Your family members will be well aware of your progress and current medication. In today’s fast paced world, hectic daily routines, it is not unusual to forget your medication or appointments with your healthcare provider. With a maintained PHR your family members can remind you and help you in being punctual and eventually helping you in better healthcare.

For all these solutions, GlobalPatientRecord™ is your personal, online, health record which is completely secure & confidential. It is an intelligent system that will notify you of health check-ups as recommended by the American Medical Association. It is an online, health chart that follows you through life and notifies you when checkups are needed based upon your age, gender and medical history. It is never too late to begin a health record on yourself or your elders and children.

The preparation phase of filing for health insurance is an excellent time to implement a computer-based personal health record (PHR) because you can proverbially kill two birds with one stone, i.e. begin the creation of your own all important personal medical record and decrease the likelihood of being denied medical insurance coverage or experiencing gaps in your coverage known as pre-existing exclusions if your application is approved because of incorrect information entered on your application. The online health insurance application process from acquisition of health insurance quotes to the final application approval is a streamlined one which is designed to enable you to find the best insurance for you in the least amount of time, but if you do not have the proper information pertaining to your health while going through the process, the efficiency that is intended may be minimized or negated.  

The creation of a personal health record as you prepare to file for health insurance online probably can not only help you more efficiently and accurately go through the application process and find the health insurance that is best for you, but can also be of immense value to you in the future in other settings such as applying for a job, applying for various licenses that require health information, obtaining an airman medical certificate if you are a pilot, and preparing for visits to doctors or other health care providers, only to mention a few.  

In applying for health insurance, as is the case in virtually any application proceeding, going through the process without having documents to refer to can be very frustrating and might result in incorrect information being submitted causing your application to be denied, and in the worst case scenario, a conviction for health insurance fraud.

In deciding whether not to grant you medical insurance, insurance companies want to know a number of things about your past and current health such as past illnesses, current illnesses, dates of onset of symptoms pertaining to diagnosed and non-diagnosed medical conditions, surgeries, past and present medications, allergies, immunizations and even some details about the health of family members inasmuch as some conditions have hereditary links. Not all insurance companies use the same application form, but to get a good idea of additional information that you need to focus on entering into your personal health record in preparation for the application process you can download a standard insurance application for your state from a site on the Internet. You may be able to obtain some of the relevant information from paper records you already have such as copies of superbills from doctor visits, a health diary, prescription receipts, prescription bottle labels or notes you have taken during actual doctor visits. As you gather this information prior to applying for health insurance online is a good idea to organize it for quick and easy reference during the health insurance online application process by entering it into the appropriate sections of your PHR.

It is unlikely that you will have all the information you need at your fingertips, thus it might be necessary to obtain some of that information from your health care provider(s). While it would not be practical or reasonable to expect your healthcare provider to review your office medical record and answer all your questions during a sick visit or follow up visit, state laws give you access to review your medical records upon request during the office business hours. Because this might be a unique experience for your healthcare provider and staff and could engender some concerns regarding possible litigious intent on your part, it might be a good idea to be forthright early on in expressing exactly what your purpose is for acquiring the information and why you think having a personal health record would be of benefit to you and possibly the health care provider as well. 

As you review your office records is a good idea to take notes of what you can understand and perhaps make copies of important x-ray and laboratory reports which can later be incorporated in your PHR if you have a scanner. If your medical history is rather complicated and/or your office record is not legible or difficult to understand it might be best to speak with your doctor to see if a special appointment can be made to review and discuss the salient features of the record and/or if a summary with dates and copies of the important supporting documents such as laboratory reports and x-rays can be provided. If your doctor has a very busy schedule and would charge you a visit to provide this information you might request assistance from a qualified member of the staff instead of the doctor per se, if appropriate.

It is not necessary that your entire personal health record be finished prior to applying for health insurance online, but once the basic information for used for insurance application has been entered, the remainder of the work can  be done at your leisure. 

A digital personal health record (PHR) is a computer-based software application that allows you to store a variety of personal health information including illnesses, hospitalizations, encounters (i.e. visits and communications), journal information in between doctor visits, medications, allergies, immunizations, surgeries, lab results, and family history. The personal health record differs from an electronic medical record which is a similar application with much more all-encompassing features used by healthcare providers such as scheduling and insurance billing, in addition to the storage of patient health data. Owning and maintaining an up-to-date digital personal health record has many benefits and is the cornerstone of proactive healthcare involvement and better healthcare experiences.

One of the chief reasons to have your health data stored electronically is it improves the quality of healthcare you receive by enabling you to be better prepared for doctor visits, equipped with the accurate and relevant information that your doctor needs to pursue an optimal treatment course. Because that vital data can then be conveyed to your doctor more efficiently, more time can be spent during the visit focusing on diagnosing and treating as opposed to gathering information. The latter fact is of paramount importance given the fact that healthcare providers in general have busier schedules and less time to spend with individual patients.

A digital PHR also ensures the availability of your health information in a legible form and facilitates the flow of that information between your and healthcare provider(s) whether only one physician is treating you or several doctors are participating in your care. Information in the record can be conveyed to your health-care provider(s) verbally, in print out form, digitally on an external medium such as a flash drive, and in some cases via the Internet prior to office visits. This ease of transfer of medical data is vitally important considering the fact that 18% of medical errors are due to inadequate availability of patient information. Moreover, medical records are frequently lost, doctors retire, hospitals or HMOs purges old records to save storage space, and employers frequently change group health insurance plans resulting in patients needing to change doctors and request transfer medical records which are sometimes illegible. Despite efforts on the part of the government to encourage doctors to keep medical records on a computer, i.e. utilize electronic medical records (EMRs) also called electronic health records (EHRs) in order to reduce errors, the fact of the matter is only 5% of doctors keep medical records on the computer and many that have purchased EMRs have never effectively implemented them or continued to use them in their practices.

Another compelling reason to have an updated personal health record is it could save your life. The Center for Disease Control on its annual list of leading cause of death included medical airs which was listed six ahead of diabetes and pneumonia. Approximately 120,000 Americans die each year as a result of preventable medical errors in hospitals, and who knows what the total is including patients treated outside of the hospital. Equally daunting is the fact that most emergency rooms cannot adequately retrieve your critical health information in a time of emergency.

The fourth reason to have a PHR is to reduce your healthcare expenses. Doctors generally use subjective and objective information about you in arriving at a diagnosis and treatment plan. Subjective data is that information which can be expressed by you such as your symptoms, and objective data is that information which can be measured and recorded, such as physical exam findings, x-ray reports and laboratory test results. Many diagnoses and treatment decisions can be based in large part on subjective information obtained from the patient or patient’s family, but if sufficient and appropriate subjective data cannot be obtained healthcare provider tend to rely more on objective data including x-rays and lab tests which result in higher treatment costs. X-rays and laboratory tests are oftentimes performed unnecessarily because they were recently performed but the patient did not know the results or did not even know they were performed, fueling the flames of rising healthcare costs.

The fifth reason you need your personal health information stored in a computer desktop-based application is to ensure the privacy of your information. There are online repositories that will store your health record, but there are definite concerns regarding privacy and the security of your data. By using a computer-based application to store all-important data about your health, you can ensure that the information remains private and secure. If you feel the need for greater security of the data within your computer or that which has been exported to a flash drive, there are affordably priced folder protection software programs which will protect the data by requiring a login. Alternatively, there are also biometric fingerprint reading devices which can be installed on your computer allowing login with a finger swipe.

The sixth reason you should have a computer-based record of your health information is the fact that maintaining a health record is a shared responsibility between the health-care provider and the health-care consumer. If you doubt that, try filling out a health insurance application without recorded health information to refer to. Traditionally patients have relied upon their healthcare providers to know everything about them and to record that information, but in today’s era of change and looming healthcare reform, that cruise control approach is rapidly coming to a screeching halt. Just as taxpayers are held accountable for knowing and verifying the information they submit or the information that is submitted for them on their tax returns, healthcare consumers are going to be held more accountable for knowing and verifying what is in their medical record. This will be readily apparent if you are ever audited by the Internal Revenue Service or if you have health insurance benefits excluded after your policy has gone into effect because of pre-existing conditions which were not recorded in the insurance application questionnaire at the time of filing.

The seventh reason to have a digital personal health record is to enhance your doctor/patient rapport and engender mutual appreciation. I can recall those patients who were well-prepared with organized, relevant quality information to provide during their patient encounters and the delight I had in treating them. That type of encounter makes the practice of medicine much more fun and mutually beneficial. On the other hand, the patient, by seeking and obtaining a better understanding of my diagnostic and treatment course developed a greater appreciation for me and my efforts. I trust that your experience will be the same.

A digital personal health record (PHR) is a computer-based software application that allows you to store a variety of personal health information including illnesses, hospitalizations, encounters (i.e. visits and communications), journal information in between doctor visits, medications, allergies, immunizations, surgeries, lab results, and family history. Owning and maintaining an up-to-date digital personal health record has many benefits and is the cornerstone of proactive healthcare involvement and better healthcare experiences.

A personal health record (PHR) is a health record initiated and maintained by an individual.  It can be in the form of a handwritten health diary, but in today’s information age it is most practical and efficient if it is based on a local computer with functionality allowing the exportation of data to a USB flash drive. Implementing a personal health record (PHR) entails gathering as much information about your past and current health and organizing it in such a way that it can be easily retrievable and reproducible for circumstances that might require its use.The starting point is to choose a personal health record which will allow you to enter typed information as well as information and official documents such as x-ray reports, laboratory reports and electrocardiograms. Ideally, the program should have a resource to allow you to learn more about your medical condition(s) and should be secure and encrypted with password protection of your personal data. Other desirable features include the ability to store health information about your family members as well as yourself, technical support in using the program, ease of transferring information into it and from it to your health care provider(s) and flexibility in the reproduction of the data. All these factors considered, a local computer-based personal medical records software application is probably the most logical choice.After choosing a personal medical records software program and installing it on your computer the next step involves locating and gathering all the paper documents you may have in your home or elsewhere containing information about your health. These documents can include immunization records, prescription drug labels, prescription receipts, written instructions from your doctor(s), notes taken by you during doctor visits, office records you may have from your current or previous physician(s), hospital bills, prescription receipts, and copies of superbills from your doctor(s).Once you have gathered as much information as possible pertaining to your health it should then be entered into the appropriate sections and subsections of the personal health record. The basic informational entry process will require typing, but if you want to include actual official reports such as x-rays, laboratory tests, or electrocardiograms, those documents can be scanned, then copied and pasted into your PHR. If you are fairly technical and want to have some fun creating your personal health record dictating the information using one of the speech recognition software programs such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking or ViaVoice is an alternative which is also more efficient than typing. If you do not want to buy a speech- recognition software program and you have one that came with your computer this would be a good time to learn to use it. If you are even more technical and want to be even more efficient in implementing your personal health record you can dictate your health information into a digital recorder, transcribe it through the voice editor software program that comes with the digital recorder into a word processor program such as Microsoft Word or one that comes with the speech recognition program, then copy and paste it into your PHR. The latter method allows you to document information for entry into your health record in real time, such as when you come across stored records in your home or if you dictate notes during doctor visits.After you have entered as much health-related information about yourself as you have available, then fully explore the personal health record program, going through all the tabs and sub tabs to see if there is any other information you can retrieve and enter at a later date. You might need to obtain some of this information from your health care provider(s), but since it is not yet commonplace for patients to share the responsibility of maintaining a health record it might be necessary for you to explain to your doctor(s) the benefits of having a personal health record, so as to ease any possible concerns of you being litigious. Also, begin making journal entries regarding new symptoms or developments that need to be discussed during impending doctor encounters.Once implemented, the maintenance and updating of your personal health record should motivate you to be more involved in your health care and hopefully improve your health.