One of the things we accumulate as we age is a health history.
It’s probably still in bulky paper files in our doctor’s office. And in our own files at home. Not easy to access or navigate.
Each of our family members and extended family members probably has the same. And our ability to share health history is limited. Often what we “know” about Aunt Betty’s or Grampa’s health may not be especially accurate. Yet, that family health history may hold some very important information for our health care practitioner.
Have you ever found yourself at a loss when your doctor asks about health conditions of family members – such as sibling who you don’t see often? Or stuggled to find an aging relative’s health data for a new doctor or be able to share it with family members who may help with care.
And, when considering some types of insurance, such as health insurance and long-term care insurance, knowing health history of family members can make for a more informed choice about risk and how much insurance coverage to purchase.
Now it’s easy to create a family health history online with a tool from the U.S. Surgeon General. You can gather data from your immediate as well as extended family.
The Surgeon General’s “My Family Health Portrait” is an internet-based tool. The tool is easy to access on the web and simple to fill out. It assembles your information and makes a “pedigree” family tree that you can download. It is private–it does not keep your information. It gives you a health history that you can share with family members or send to your health care practitioner.
It should only take about 15 to 20 minutes to build a basic family health history. Individuals with larger families will spend more time entering in their information. Then you have the option of sharing it with other family members, if you wish. They may help provide information you didn’t know. And relatives can start with your information and create their own history. You will also probably want to provide your health history to your health care practitioner. You and your health care practitioner should review it together before making it part of your medical record.
The technology used is Microsoft’s Health Vault. The tool does not keep a government record of the information. You should carefully review the privacy statement before you use the tool.
While the coming of electronic health records will improve our ability to access health records, this kind of tool helps us pull together a family health portrait that can be of use today and to future generations. I know in my family a lot of health information that gets passed down is sketchy at best; inaccurate at worst. And as I accompany aging family members to their doctor’s appointments, it’s comforting to know that I have information in one, easy to access place.
Your family history includes health information about you and your close relatives. Family history is an important risk factor for problems like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. A risk factor is anything that increases your chance of getting a disease. The reason a family history can help predict risk is that families share their genes, as well as other factors that affect health, like environment, lifestyles and habits.
Having a family member with a disease raises your risk, but it does not mean that you will definitely get it. Realizing that you are at risk gives you a chance to reduce that risk by following a healthier lifestyle and getting tested as needed.
So rather than carry my file of papers with notes written in the margins the next time my doctor refers me to a specialist, I’m looking forward to bringing in a print out that captures not only my health history, but my family’s health history, too. I just need to figure out how to nudge some of the less tech savvy family members into sharing their health information, too.
Resources:
My Family Health Portrait – we based tool to gather family health history
Compiling Your Medical Health History – Mayo Clinic article