Finding a Market in Online Medical Data

By Matt Villano

For many people, medical records are more personal than a diary. They paint a perfect picture of a person's health, listing a lifetime of diagnoses and prescriptions. Most of the time, patients entrust these records to their doctors. But if a California-based Web company has its way, scores of patients will keep the documents online, in a secure database only accessible to physicians and users themselves.

The company is PersonalMD.com, and so far, its idea has already caught on in a big way. In less than one month, more than 30,000 patients have transferred their personal medical records from the doctor's office to the data warehouse. Why are they logging on? First of all, the service is free. But more important, says CEO and President Suresh Challa, patients are jazzed about the opportunity to take control of a process in which they previously had no say.

"Our service provides members with all of the tools they need to streamline their medical records," he says. "Much like computer programs such as Quicken do for financial data, we take medical care to the next level."

As Challa explains, PersonalMD.com offers each patient virtual file cabinet for medical information. After patients register with the site, they answer a handful of questions similar to those a doctor might ask during a first-time visit. Next, patients input their medical information, family history, and emergency contact numbers. Through a service called "e-file," they also can fax or e-mail EKGs and x-ray films into their personal records.

Once patients have entered a minimum amount of medical information, PersonalMD.com mails them an identification card with a password that grants access to their files. A patient can choose to give that password to his or her physician, or download their records, print them, and give Doc the printouts instead.

According to Challa, these identification cards should also help emergency doctors treat patients more quickly. When they register with emergency doctors treat patients more quickly. When they register with PersonalMD.com, patients must sign a disclaimer making their information available to doctors in the case of an emergency. With such authorization, emergency room doctors can access a patient's records immediately, instead of waiting hours for access to the files.

Scott Plantz, vice president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, says this feature could revolutionize emergency medicine, helping emergency doctors get patient information when they need it most.

"This is a major breakthrough in the emergency physician's ability to make informed, split second decisions regarding the health of our patients when every moment is precious," says Plantz, whose organization is based in Milwaukee. "Instantaneous access to vital information could mean the difference between life and death."

While its implications for emergency medicine are indeed impressive, PersonalMD.com offers a number of other advantages as well. Thanks to some nifty back-end programming, the Web site automatically customizes itself according to each patient's medical needs. Allergy sufferers, for instance, will log on to find local pollen counts, while patients with diabetes will see the latest news about kidney research.

All of that sophisticated coding, however, means that users with slower connections and older browsers will have trouble getting past the site's home page. Security is always an issue, too. Though Challa boasts that his company abides by federal "Health on the Net" guidelines for encryption, some users say they still don't trust the security behind which their records are kept.

PersonalMD.com officials say the Pleasanton, Calif.-based company has not had a security breach since the site launched last month.

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