Health information technology (HIT) has become all the rage. And with some reason.
The medical profession appears to be running behind—way behind—most other professions in adapting and adopting the latest technologies to the need to compile, store and transmit patient information.
That tardiness has prompted one person to comment that the doctor’s most important tool is still the clipboard.
We, too, share the hope that HIT will one day transform the health care system. The real question is whether it will be for the better or worse.
That’s because a lot of effort is being devoted to creating inter-operable health information databases that will allow, say, a hospital to transfer patient information to a doctor or another hospital, or vice-versa.
But that approach also raises a number of issues about privacy, and has raised the eyebrows of both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Conservative Union (ACU).
Can we suggest a better way? Let the patient information travel with the patient.
Doctors and hospitals, and even pharmacies for that matter, need to know some important, but relatively limited information, about patients.
- What prescription drugs are you currently using, or recently used?
- Any recent surgeries or medical problems?
- Do you have any of a list of symptoms or diagnosed medical conditions?
- Do you have a family history of certain medical conditions?
New patients fill out sheets answering these questions every time they go to a new medical provider.
So why can’t this relatively limited information be put into an electronic format, either on a personally owned and controlled swipe card or in a database, and made available to the medical provider when the patient arrives?
Microsoft has introduced a new product that may become such a tool, and other organizations are working on similar approaches. We can imagine lots of ways this can work to address the current needs. But the key is: personally owned and controlled.
We don’t need huge government, or corporate for that matter, databases filled with your medical information, where bureaucrats decide who—or whether—they will send it to.
We are moving into a consumer-driven health care system, where the patient increasingly controls the money and the medical decisions. In such a world, it only makes sense that the patient also controls his medical information.