As families gather for reunions this summer and fall, they should consider sharing something more important than Aunt Martha’s macaroni salad recipe.

It’s important to know your family medical history, and large family gatherings are the best place to gather the details, according to health officials.

“Knowing your family medical history can save your life,” said Karen Brooks, a genetic counselor and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

In an effort to improve patient-doctor communication, researchers are launching a pilot program in which approximately 25,000 patients will have access to notes their doctors have made in their medical records.
The “OpenNotes” initiative has enrolled 100 primary-care doctors in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington state to participate for a 12-month test period starting this summer.

WASHINGTON—What if my blood sugar’s too high today? Is it time for my blood pressure pill? With nagging text messages or more customized two-way interactions, researchers are trying to harness the power of cell phones to help fight chronic diseases.

“I call it medical minutes,” says Dr. Richard Katz of George Washington University Hospital in the nation’s capital.

He’s testing whether inner-city diabetics, an especially hard-to-treat population, might better control their blood sugar—and thus save Medicaid dollars—by tracking their disease using Internet-connected cell phones, provided with reduced monthly rates as long as they regularly comply.

Consider Tyrone Harvey, 43, who learned he had diabetes seven years ago only after getting so sick he was hospitalized for a week, and who has struggled to lower his blood sugar ever since. In May, through a study Katz began with nearby Howard University Hospital’s diabetes clinic, Harvey received a Web-based personal health record that he clicks onto using his cell phone, to record his daily blood sugar measurements.

It’s not a new law, but it’s a tangible, short-term step toward protecting the privacy of patient data that travels online. To address loopholes in current patient privacy legislation, the Health and Human Services Department on Thursday proposed privacy rules that would apply to vendors of technology that transmit personal health data.

The existing privacy law, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), mostly applies to providers and healthcare plans. It does not cover third-party health information technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, which now handle mounds of personal health data because patients, doctors and hospitals are increasingly turning to the Internet to improve care. Google and Microsoft offer so-called personal health records that patients create and control.

OAKLAND, CA – E-mail use between patients with diabetes and hypertension and their doctors resulted in improved quality of care scores, according to a study of patients in Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California region.

The study, which was published in the July issue of Health Affairs, observed 35,423 patients with diabetes, hypertension, or both. Researchers found that the use of secure patient-physician messaging in any two-month period was associated with statistically significant improvements in HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) care measurements. Results included 2 to 6.5 percentage point improvements in glycemic, cholesterol and blood pressure screening and control.

One of the goals of improved healthcare in the U.S. is to ensure that health insurance is portable. The idea is that people should be able to change jobs, move around the country, and still be enrolled in the same health insurance plan.

Still, when a person from Texas relocates to California and changes physicians, the new doctor may know more about that person’s health insurance than his or her physical condition. To obtain information about the new patient’s health usually calls for the doctor to conduct a complete physical exam, perhaps order a few tests, and depend upon the patient’s recollections to create a medical history.

Let’s face it; never is personal health information access more important than when traveling. When tourists or business travelers hit the road, they usually do so without many important documents other than a driver’s license and passport, including important medical information that may be needed in the event of a sudden illness or injury.

Healthcare practitioners are frequently tasked with re-creating a person’s medical history is raced to the emergency department. Without immediate access to health records, physicians and emergency personnel may have to perform expensive tests to verify medical status before treatment can begin. So, it’s especially important to add your medical history information to one of the many PHR platforms and have it available on your smartphone, if you fall into any of these groups:

•Frequent business travelers and those traveling often for pleasure
•Parents of multiple children who need ready access to all family medical records
•Those individuals with several chronic medical conditions
•Adults responsible for tracking and managing the health of elderly family members

A new feature on TRICARE Online now allows users to save their personal health data such as medication and allergy profiles, demographic information and a personal health summary to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file on their computer.

MediConnect Global Inc. has a popular consumer web-based personal health record also known as the PHR system. MediConnect has announced the compatibility of the PHR system with a wide array of mobile devices including the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and most Google (News - Alert) Android and HP/Palm WebOS smartphones.

The Obama administration has chosen myMediConnect, formerly PassportMD to participate in the current Medicare PHR pilot program. myMediConnect is one of the only four PHR systems selected in the pilot program. Multiple aspects of an individual’s health and wellbeing are managed and integrated with myMediConnect. The system includes tools to import medical records, track progress towards personal fitness goals and connect more easily with physicians. The system also provides research on HSA providers, saves money on medications and provides information about healthcare issues. Members can have personalized medical reminder messages set up with myMediConnect.  They can securely communicate with doctors as well.

Two hospitals in the District of Columbia will test patient access via cell phones to personal health records software as a way to better manage high-risk diabetics in underserved areas.

The George Washington University Hospital and Howard University Hospital will develop a program to use cell phones to enable patients to maintain electronic diaries of their weight, blood glucose levels and blood pressure. Participating patients will be given a cell phone and a PHR populated with electronic health record data from the Howard University Diabetes Treatment Center.