Getting Organized With Online Medical Records

Oct. 21, 2008 — -- Several companies are offering programs that allow users to get more organized and store their medical information online. Everything from prescriptions to diagnoses can be housed and some believe online medical records are the way of the future.

Former "Good Morning America" anchor Joan Lunden, who is now a paid spokeswoman for PassportMD, dropped by the Times Square Studios to discuss the new world of online medical records.

Here is what she said:

Doing it yourself is daunting, and I think it's why many Americans haven't put their personal health records online. PassportMD has a service that basically assigns a concierge to you who will take care of that. All you have to do is provide the names of your doctors and the cities and they do it all. These are your records and this lets you take ownership.

It helps you stay organized in a remarkable way. I'm a mother of seven children and I take care of my elderly mother on the West Coast. It's hard to keep everything straight. I've always balanced my work life with my family life by staying organized, but I didn't realize until last year how unorganized my health records where. I'd have a giant X-ray behind the couch, or a blood test result stuck in a drawer. Putting it online gives you complete, easy access to all of those things, in one place.

Now, the second big piece of this is that all your doctors can have access to your records. Both you and they can see the last time your child had a tetanus shot. It's 24/7 access, and it allows you to take control of your records and your health. You and your doctor can check to make sure you're not taking medications that could interact in a dangerous way.

Right now, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPAA) laws don't apply to the Internet, and I'm sure that will eventually change. But until that happens, some of the sites are not HIPPAA compliant, so you need to read the fine print.

I chose to become aligned with PassportMD because it is compliant with the rules. It's important people choose a system that is. I don't want anyone to have access to my medical records that I haven't given access to myself.