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The Importance of Keeping a Personal Medical Record

Summary & Participants

Medical information is usually scattered in many different places. To receive the best possible health care, people are encouraged to gather information in one place and create a personal medical record.

Medically Reviewed On: July 21, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: To help guarantee the best possible medical care, experts say everyone should maintain their own personal medical record. The reason? It’s just not true that important medical information is likely to be complete and always readily available.

RON STOCK, M.D.: It's interesting how many times people come to my office and I ask them a question about their past medical history or I ask them what medications they're taking, and they look at me sort of strangely and say, "Well, don't you know? Isn't it all right there in your record?" And the reality is that, frequently, we don't have all the information.

ANNOUNCER: So patients should gather the information themselves. It can help in emergencies, and help people become more proactive health care consumers.

CAROLYN CLANCY, M.D.: There are two reasons to keep good records about what's happened to you with your health care. One is that it could be that your information is the only source at a very, very important moment, and the second is that it actually gets people more engaged and sets them up to ask better questions.

ANNOUNCER: Doctors say people should carry with them everyday information on serious medical conditions, medicines being taken, known reactions to medicines, and allergies.

DAVID LANSKY, PH.D.: A lot of Americans believe that the emergency rooms are able to look up your medical records in a crisis when they need to. And in fact, they can't. Almost never can they do that. So if you don't have some emergency information about you in your pocket, or perhaps on a Web site and know how to reach it, they're not going to know much about you.

ANNOUNCER: Most people receive care from many doctors in different places over time… another reason a personal medical record is a good idea.

CAROLYN CLANCY, M.D.: It turns out that Americans are pretty mobile people. They move, they change jobs, they change insurers, and they end up having to change doctors.

DAVID LANKSY, M.D.: If you move and you want to share your previous information with a new doctor or a new provider, you pretty much have to bring it with you or contact all of your previous doctors and have them individually send your information along.

ANNOUNCER: The first step in compiling a complete personal medical record is knowing what kind of information to include. The basics are: insurance information, lab results, the names and phone numbers of doctors, and details of injuries, iIlnesses, surgeries, allergies, and treatments.

DAVID LANSKY, PH.D.: Going back to things that you remember as major health events are certainly worth doing, or if you've been having a chronic illness managed over time, you'd like to go back to that. At minimum, just compiling where you got the care, which doctors provided the care, could be important.

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