The ups and downs of digitized medical information.

It used to be that all medical records were done on paper.  On the up side it kept your private information private unless you gave permission for that info to be shared and only with the party you give permission for it to be shared with.  The downside of that is if you needed to see a series of specialists to get either a diagnosis or treatment you either had to sign a release form and wait for the records to arrive or personally hand carry your medical records to each doctor and that is only if the doctor was willing to release them to you.  Doctors were reluctant to hand medical records to the patient to decrease risk of those patients handing their records over to lawyers for lawsuit.  The additional upside was that if there was certain information that had no bearing on the current health issue than there was no need to divulge that information.

Now you go into a medical office and if you have been to any doctor before all your medical information is at their fingertips already just by pulling up your file from the centralized medical database.  The good thing about this is that there is no need to fill out endless forms each time you see a new doctor.  The bad part of this is that there is no longer any medical privacy.  If you are having a respiratory issue then the Dr. has no need to be made aware of you being treated for an STD 20 years ago, but its right there in black and white.  If you need to have your broken leg casted then there is no need for the specialist to know that you are seeing an Ears, nose and throat Dr, but there it is right there in your records for all to see.

Here is the other downside to central medical record digital storage.  When you go to get life insurance and the insurance requires a medical examination your entire life's medical history is available to the insurance company through their Dr.  It doesn't matter that your bout of depression was episodal 10 years ago your premium will be more expensive or insurance denied altogether.  It won't matter that you quit smoking 20 years ago your insurance premium will be higher.  It won't matter if you have completely changed your lifestyle past history will affect you insurance premiums as much if not more than your current history.

Its more than that if you visit a medical website on your computer and register your identity that information will get back to the insurance carriers.  Your spending habits will get back to your insurance carriers, the people you associate with will get back to them etc.  Everything that you do that can get information digitized and in a database somewhere will get out to those same insurance companies.  It won't matter that their assumptions are wrong it will cost you. 

The moral of the story is anytime that you do something that will get your personal information digitized or on the internet, think again.  Unless it is something completely positive with no negative associations it will affect you somewhere in your pocketbook down the line.  Consumer beware.