The Personal History database application stores information about
chronological Milestones or Events. A Milestone is defined as something that occurs on a single date, an Event has a
Start Date and a Finish Date. The
default Categories are:
UNCATEGORIZED (default), and
- Growth chart tracking (non-graphical for now)
- Immunization record
- Allergies
- Medications
- Medical tests/surgery done
- Obstetrical history
- Biographical (general)
- Positive life events
- Traumatic experience log
- Travel log
- Education
- Future goals
Health care uses for an Individual:
- Create and easily update a current medication list
- List important medical and surgical history
- Provide a printed or electronic summary when attending an emergency department, or for travel medical emergencies
- Select how you prefer to manage privacy and security of any of this information, with or without Internet exposure.
For the Health Care provider:
- Enable your patient to create their own personal medical history
- Replace that old clipboard in your waiting room, use a recycled computer instead
- Data entry will be electronic, easy to edit, avoids transcription errors, and it's legible
- Has the potential to import the patient's history into your Electronic Medical Records system, a win-win solution for physician and patient
- Reduce emergency department waiting times, like a Nexus pass at the border
- Useful for creating patient summaries for your locum tenens, or when closing a practice; and your patient does the data entry and develops their personal health record at the same time
- May be a useful way for patients enrolled in research trials to log changes they experience, adverse effects, etc.
Because this application can be used for other purposes, people may be more likely to become familiar with its intuitive user interface and to use it for their own health records, and more.
Consider this scenario, for instance:
A couple named Bob and Carol have a daughter named Elizabeth, age 4.
Bob survived military service, but has PTSD, so the Trauma Log will help in his treatment planning and Future Goals will help him focus on positive change and recovery. Bob will be using Categories for Allergies, Medications, Medical tests/surgery done, Biographical events, Positive life events, Traumatic Experience log, Travel log, and Future goals.
Carol has asthma, needs to track her allergies and medications, and will be using the Obstetrical history, if she and Bob are successful in their plans for a second child. Her chosen categories will be Allergies, Medications, Medical tests/surgery done, Obstetrical history and Future goals. She does scrapbooking as a hobby and may want to create another user named "Mom" to help track biographical details of her mother's life, using category 7.
Elizabeth will use: Growth chart tracking , Immunization record, Allergies, Medications, Medical tests/surgery done, and Biogaphical Categories, ot at least her parents will, on her behalf, until she is old enough to do it herself. By this time, she will have a more complete record of early chronological information than most people.