Whether you have been relatively healthy your whole life or have been juggling a few chronic medical conditions, everyone can benefit from keeping a home record of their medical history. Though our office Electronic Medical Record system is able to keep an up to date account of your medical history, you want to be prepared for when medical emergencies happen on vacation or if you find yourself moving out of town or out of state. After all, you are your first and best healthcare advocate. Whether you want to store your information in a computer file or Google document or prefer to write things down in a dedicated notebook, every home medical record should contain the following:

• Current and previous medical conditions and any past surgeries, including when and why they were done.
• A current account of your family medical history including your siblings, parents, and grandparents.
• Allergies you have to any medications or foods.
• A list of current medications, don’t forget to include any vitamins or supplements.  You should also keep a separate list of medications you have taken and did not like or did not find helpful so that these can be avoided in the future.
• Dates of any adult vaccinations – you need a tetanus booster every ten years so this is one that people often lose track of.
• Dates and results of screening tests like PAP smears, mammograms, and colonoscopies. This will help ensure you do not fall behind on important cancer screening tests. Also, some insurance plans will not cover these tests if they are done too soon so knowing the dates can keep you from having to foot the bill.
• Any blood work and imaging tests (X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, etc) and when, where, and why they were done (i.e. what symptoms you were having that prompted the testing).
• Names of previous doctors you have seen and the practice address and phone number in case records need to be obtained at a later time

It can be useful to obtain and keep a copy of blood work or imaging studies for your own records but keep in mind lab and radiology reports are written by health care professionals for health care professionals. Many times the significance of results needs to be interpreted in the context why the tests were ordered. Variation from the range of normal does not necessarily indicate a serious problem and there are many things that may be incidentally discovered on CT scans and MRIs that don’t mean anything negative to your health. Please be judicious with what and how you Google and if you ever have questions about previous blood work or imaging results please let us know! We would be happy to answer any questions you have.