Internet company enables instant access to medical records

By Richard Springer
October 24, 1999

A CALIFORNIA start-up has come up with a solution to give doctors the ability to instantly access medical records of patients on the Web or through a fax machine. PersonalMD.com , based here and co-founded by Hyderabad natives Suresh Challa, Sanjeev Vipani and Raj Suryadevara, officially launched its service in July. Mr Challa, PersonalMD's chief executive officer and president, said his product allows consumers nationwide to take active control over their medical records. The PersonalMD system works as follows: a consumer signs up free with PersonalMD and selects a login name and a personal identification number. The patient has to round up the medical information, such as blood type, prescription medications, drug allergies, medical conditions and emergency numbers.

Documents, including electrocardiograms and living wills, can be faxed directly into the company's secure database. A PersonalMD member receives a wallet-sized ID that lists emergency numbers, the system's Web address and the individual's fax ID number. If the person wishes, he or she can list a PIN, allowing doctors access to medical information if the patient is incapacitated. The company's database can be reached by the Web or by fax and responds 24 hours a day. Mr Challa told the California newspaper India-West that his staff informed him a 78-year-old man in the Midwest may have had his life saved recently by gaining immediate access to medical records stored by the company. The man was in hospital for routine eye-retina surgery, but suffered a heart attack. Doctors saw the Personal MD emergency card and were able to get his complete medical history immediately and take appropriate action.

More than $1 trillion is spent on healthcare in the US every year and over $200 bn is wasted because physicians lack timely access to crucial information such as laboratory reports, X-rays and EKGs, Mr Challa said. PersonalMD's vice-president of engineering Mr Vipani said that the medical information is ``stored in a safe and secure location and entirely controlled by the member.

The company is ``literally paranoid about security, Mr Challa added. Some proponents of electronically-stored medical files point out that patients have no way of knowing who sees the paper files that are kept in medical offices.  IANS

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