Jan. 31, 2007 - Health-By-Design.net announced its new medical record keeping tool that is available on a USB ink pen or flash drive small enough to fit in a wallet. My Medical Journal, a medical record-keeping guide explains how to communicate more effectively with doctors and prepare for upcoming visits. However, the main emphasis is on how to develop and maintain a personal copy of vital health records (including preventive medicine records). It also teaches how to chart a person's family medical history and provides fill-in charts to keep up with blood pressure, blood sugar, cigarette smoking and exercise. The guide is available in a pre-programmed ink pen USB, flash drive, 3-ring binder, CD or floppy disk.
Usually, the ER physician has nothing to go by other than the patient's symptoms and the results of tests done in the emergency room. He must therefore make a judgment call based on the information at hand. More likely than not, he will err on the side of caution if he has any remote suspicion that the patient's chest pain may be heart related. In other words, the patient will likely be admitted to the hospital and undergo a battery of tests to rule out heart disease, even if he really only has something as innocent as heartburn as the cause of his symptoms.
This is but one of the many different scenarios that happen frequently each day in America. Oftentimes, the only difference between gentle reassurance and a safe discharge from the emergency room and an expensive, sometimes potentially dangerous hospital stay is simply a matter of what information the ER physician has at his disposal when he makes his assessment. With an estimated 1.5 million medication errors that injure patients each year, an unnecessary hospitalization can mean much more than wasted time and money. The creation of My Medical Journal, especially in its highly portable forms, allows everyone to have vital health records available at all times to expedite and optimize medical care.
Health-By-Design.net (http://health-by-design.net) also offers free, interactive online health-empowerment teleseminars thru spring of 2007 (http://health-by-design.net/teleseminars.htm) hosted by a physician. Cards-4-Life (http://health-by-design.net/cards.htm) are one-of-a-kind health-promoting greeting cards to remind a loved one to get a mammogram, schedule a physical, or take some other important action to promote their health. Head of the Class (http://patientschool.net/headoftheclass.htm) is a year-long subscription for those who are really serious about learning the 'ins and outs' of the medical world. It includes a monthly e-zine, online, e-mail alerts, a 'Case of the Month' in which a physician dissects a medical encounter and more extensive physician-led teleseminars.