Getting It All Together – Your Medical Information
Hopefully you don’t have a lot of medical information to get together but nonetheless, you should do it. I realized the importance of getting together all my medical information in one place after one Sunday afternoon a few years ago…
My brother-in-law was riding his Harley when he started feeling weird and blacked out while on the highway! Luckily, it was a brief blackout; how he didn’t hit another car or lay down his bike is a miracle! He pulled over and called us for help. We ran to his aide and immediately took him to the hospital. On our way I called his wife, my sister-in-law who was working 3000 miles away, to tell her what was happening and to get my brother-in-laws medication list so that I could give it to the ER doctor. She rattled off a list that filled up the front AND back of the 3×5 card I was writing on. My brother-in-law has several medical conditions so getting this information was critical.
This story had a happy ending – my brother-in-law is fine. But it really got me thinking. What would a doctor need to know about me, my husband or any of my children in an emergency situation? How could I access it quickly?
Having the information neatly filed is great, but the information is at home and not with you when you are away. Fortunately with Web 2.0 and smart phones, there are some solutions out there. Here’s a few to start with:
- AboutOne – create an account, upload documents and medical information. Accessible with web access.
- Jakoter Health Tag – USB flash drive with pre-installed blank forms. Carry with you everywhere.
- Paper Tiger Online – set up your medical information in a database. Accessible with web access. Check out my earlier blog post to see how I used it.
- Phone Apps – there are a variety of apps online for your smart phone to keep your medical information in your phone.
This is not an exhaustive list but does show you that there are ways to keep medical information at your fingertips. So why not gather all your medical information and be prepared just in case?
If you have already done this or know of other solutions, please comment and share. Thanks!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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Comments
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I wholeheartedly agree! In your experience, what is the best tool to use to have this information at the ready? I’m sure you’ve seen all kinds!
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It’s great that technology has made it so much easier for us to record our medical info and carry it with us. Unfortunately, I suspect that a lot of people aren’t taking advantage of it.
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I love the idea of keeping the file on a USB drive. Never would have thought of that one. I’m one of the non-tekkie folks that doesn’t have a Smart Phone, so the USB idea really works for me. Thank you.
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Yes, using the USB flash drive is a simple solution. It’s small enough to put on a key chain or carry in a wallet. Thanks for commenting and come back often!
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Thanks for the great post! As an ER nurse and patient advocate, I absolutely agree with the importance of maintaining an organized medical profile. Yet, I just want to point out that having an electronic version is not always accessible in times of emergency. In triage for instance, nurses do not usually have the ability to access online profiles and the patient will have to verbally recall all pertinent medical history and medications. For this reason, it is also important to maintain a paper version as well.
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I agree that having up to date paper version is important. If the info is on a word doc on the flash drive can the emergency room/nurses/doctors access it?
As a nurse, I cannot stress to you how important it is that we have your health information. Medications in particular are very important.
Our goal is to get you back to state before your admission and we won’t be able to accomplish that without your baseline medications.
Also, allergies and previous surgeries are important to note. This will save you and your healthcare providers time and confusion and make your experiences much more pleasant and efficient!
Thanks for this informative and useful post!