The Facebooking of Medical Records

Bob Wachter on the Facebooking of medical records over at The Health Care Blog. Great thought provoking read for those in the health care world and who understand the powers of online social networking tools for communication.

Recently I just completed co-authoring with Jud DeLoss the feature article for the next AHLA Health Lawyers News on PHRs where we discuss what may be a major shift in health information gathering from provider-centric to patient-centric. Basically the rise of the PHR and what may be on the horizon for health lawyers with such change. Bob's example and analogy of the Facebook culture is a valuable one as we look at the pros/cons of such a shift. His thoughts on leveraging the value of collaborative social networking tools to reinvent the medical record system are valuable and should be considered as we look at ways to improve the bedrock of good medical care -- the patient history and record of care.

I'd take the ideas a bit further and provide another analogy. Think about the use of Twitter (or recently discussed and TC50 winner Yammer - Twitter for businesses) like solutions to allow access to a real time updates of the patient's condition in timeline fashion among those caregivers providing care to the patient. The providers would be the followers. If able, the patient could also participate in this stream of information. Sounds a bit like Dr. Wachter's synopsis program.

Just some Friday morning thoughts. Would be interested to hear from others in the comments.