Hi,
Several weeks ago, we launched a new infrastructure for My MedHelp. At that time, we hinted that the changes would help us prepare for the next product release, Personal Pages. A few weeks later, we launched the first Personal Page - a Baby Personal Page. Now we're happy to announce the latest feature using the new Personal Pages infrastructure, a Personal Health Record (PHR).
What is a Personal Health Record?
A Personal Health Record (PHR) allows you to store and manage all of your health information in one central place, from immunizations and medical conditions to allergies and medications. You can also store emergency contacts, surgeries and procedures, lab test results, your doctor's information, and your insurance information. You can even create PHRs for your family members or other people you care about. If you've ever forgotten what your lab results were and when you did them, or if your child had that chickenpox vaccine, this is a great solution. And it's completely free.
How to create a personal page
* Go to My MedHelp
* Next to the Summary tab, you'll see a tab with a "+" in it
* Hover over the + and click Personal Health Record (PHR)
* Walk through the wizard
* Set up any applications you didn't already have
What's new?
* New Applications: New applications allow you to store personal health information. The new applications include: Personal Info (e.g. blood type, gender, height, weight), Medical Conditions, Allergies, Adult Immunizations, Child Immunizations, Surgeries & Procedures, Medications & Treatments, Emergency Contacts, Doctors Information, Insurance Information.
* Reference: Now you can easily search for more information on MedHelp relating to your conditions, medications, allergies, etc. Just click the Reference link from the expanded view of the application.
* Secret Question & Secret Answer: We've added a lot of security and encryption for the PHR feature. As a result, only someone signing in with your password can access this information. MedHelp (Harry) can no longer help you with your password. If you forget your password, you will have to provide the answer to your secret question in order to change your password. Anyone who signed up before this release did not create a secret question/answer, but you will be required to do so before you can create a PHR. Otherwise, if you forget your password, you would lose all the data stored in your PHR. This seems complicated, but just be sure that you remember your user name, password, and secret answer, and you'll be fine!
Who can see this data?
The data in your PHRs can only be viewed by you when you're logged in under your user name. Currently, you do NOT have the option to allow your MedHelp friends or the public view this data. You also cannot invite others to view this data, although we may allow you to Share This page with others in the future if there is demand for it. Even MedHelp admins (like Harry) cannot see the data, unless you explicitly grant MedHelp permission to view this data. In addition, our advertisers cannot view this page or target ads to you based on the data you enter into this page.
How do I get help with my PHR?
If a member needs help with their PHR, they must first send an email asking for Support and describing the problem through the Contact Us form. Harry will then contact the user and ask them to "Enable Support" on their PHR by clicking the link on the upper right on the PHR page. Once clicked, MedHelp admins will be able to view this member's PHR data to help them troubleshoot the issue. Once the issue is resolved, the user can remove the access or access will automatically expire within 24 hours.
What is MedHelp's Privacy Policy surrounding PHR?
MedHelp has adopted a new Privacy Policy that is available at
http://www.medhelp.org/privacy.htm. The Privacy Policy helps to clarify our position on the data stored in your PHR as well as other data you provide. The highlights are that we won't sell any of your personally identifiable information that you enter anywhere on the site. We may aggregate information, but no one would be able to figure out that it's you based on the data we aggregate. For example, we may say 50% of MedHelp members have allergies, but no one can identify a particular person based on such statements.