Hi all
My hospital uses MyChart which enables you to access all your medical records online including appointments, letters, test results and medication.
I’m in two minds as to whether this is a good thing or not. On the one hand it’s great having access to all that info and it’s so much quicker - letters available with days, appointments organised online and I’m fascinated as to what one can find out with a simple blood test.
However, having access to all that information is also the worst thing about it. I see the ct report and need to know there and then exactly what these various medical terms mean, even if my consultant has already been through it with me. So I ask Dr Google and well that’s never a good thing to do but I need to know what it actually means so I look it up and end up freaking out.
Now my consultant has told me on more than occasion, information is one thing, but you need someone to interpret what it means in the context of you and she’s obviously right. So in that case do we even need the likes of MyChart?
Great post!!
I really feel for our NHS with their antiquated IT systems and their patient paper files. . . .
I think it is far better to have the data available and then people can choose whether to look at it or not. For me, I’ve wanted online bloods available when things were uncertain and we were tracking a marker (creatinine) to a lower target before my treatment could resume. I found it very frustrating that I had to phone in if I wanted to monitor the situation and ask for them to be read out to me like a primary school kid. 
I also thought the NHS were trying to treat people like adults these days, with an emphasis on patient lead informed decisions and a much more collaborative approach. The consultant remains accountable of course, but I’m sure there have been studies that suggest when people feel included they experience better outcomes. Therefore giving people access to their own medical data can only be a good thing, and aligned with this collaborative framework. I am sure the nurses would much rather be nursing than a call handler reading out test results to interested patients.
When I was visiting my onco last Tuesday he gave me a printout of the full radiology report. You’re right, it’s full of jargon. I googled a bit (like “pulmonary” - don’t laugh!!). But I didn’t go through it with a tooth comb because the desire for in-depth understanding isn’t there at the moment because things are going OK for me. You can still google your symptoms and options and read medical white papers on pubmed so having online access to your data is not going to manage the anxieties possibly induced from the internet.
I suspect there are some old school consultants who don’t like their patients asking questions and they find it easier to manage by being the gatekeeper to the information. I think there should always be private areas of online medical data so the consultants can send private emails to each other outwith the sight of the patient – so that when appropriate the information can be released in a controlled way at the right time by the right person.
I don’t have online access. I know many here do. When I tried to get access to an online Renal tool I just experienced blockers.
I'm definitely in the "information" and "transparency" is a "good thing" camp. We shouldn't have hierarchical relationships with our consultants. I certainly don't and we both enjoy working together as a result.
