Do you think it's a good idea to centralize your medical records online?

I think it will be quite helpful. We won’t have to request records be printed out and sent to a new doctor who will have to enter them in their computer system. We won’t have to carry x-rays around with us. We won’t have to make sure various doctors coordinate with each other. It will make things much more efficient and allow medical personnel to provide better service.

The only real concern is security and privacy. We don’t want to wrong people getting access to our records. To some degree, that’s a risk we will have to take in order to achieve the benefits of centralized medical records. To me, it’s worth it, and I have a condition that could make people afraid to employ me if they knew about it.

I agree. I’m worried about the latter, especially if corporations like Microsoft, AT&T, and Walmart are running the show! Umm, no thanks. I don’t want Walmart killing my grandma! ;-)

It would simplify a lot of things. The records from my former doctor of nearly 15 years are essentially lost to me because we switched to Kaiser. At Kaiser, they always know exactly what services I have had.

My daughter is freaking out because she is worried people with mental health backgrounds will be “outed,” and that potential employers will be able to ask you to waive your privacy rights and disqualify you for health related reasons.
On the positive side, My mother in law had 3 cat scans in one year because one doctor didn’t know what the other doctor had ordered and my mother in law forgot or didn’t tell them that she had recently had the test.
Specialists order repeat blood tests that primary doctors had ordered all the time. If all this info was centralized, it would eliminate A LOT of repeat testing and cut our national health care costs by big percentages.

There are HIPAA guidelines to follow concerning safety/privacy of your data. It’s not just for reduction in redundant tests (which doctors do to CYA so you can’t sue), but also to track health trends. If an epidemic breaks out, they can isolate the cause by finding commonalities in those patients. I can’t remember the details, but a bunch of tourists (including Canadians) had visited a New York fair. They all fell ill. It took about 6 months, but the source was isolated to a single water fountain. It can definitely lessen the blow of health threats.

I would like to see it done a part of the heaalth reform act rather than by private corporations, but I think it is a good idea generally. There is room for abuse and concern, but I think the goal of providing good access to your health records outweighs privacy concerns. We need to get much smarter about how we provide health care in this country.