Records For Living, Inc. Releases HealthFrameTM -

The Family Health Organizer

 

HealthFrame improves your family’s health and wellness by putting you in control of your family’s health information

 

Sudbury, Mass. (April 25, 2005) – Records For Living, Inc. is introducing HealthFrameTM 1.0 - a state-of-the-art personal health record (PHR) management system that compiles health and wellness-related information gathered throughout an individual’s entire life.

 

HealthFrameTM enables a consumer to consolidate information from multiple organizations and health care providers, including hospitals, medical doctors, dentists, chiropractors, nutritionists, personal trainers, and all others involved in care. 

 

Furthermore, HealthFrameTM allows the consumer and his or her health care providers to access that information quickly and easily, ensuring that health care decisions are based on complete and accurate information at all times.  

 

“Too often, medical professionals must rely on incomplete information when directing the care of their patients,” says Simone Pringle, President and Founder of Records for Living, Inc. “Duplicative, inadequate or even dangerous care can result.  HealthFrameTM users are in control of their own health care information and can share it with providers as needed. In fact, due to limitations in provider-based health care information systems, HealthFrameTM is often the only complete, up-to-date source of information available on an individual patient.” 

Poor Information Exchange Contributes to Medical Errors

HealthFrameTM was developed to fill a frightening void in the health care industry. Experts agree that the US medical system is severely under-performing with regard to the adoption of modern computer technology -- lagging behind virtually all other sectors of the economy.   Efforts to computerize the medical industry have largely focused on the adoption of large, bureaucratic information systems – systems that cannot share information across all US providers and whose implementation has been delayed due to high costs or provider resistance.

The lack of computerized health information has a real and serious impact on our health. Some facts:

·        120,000 Americans die each year as a result of preventable medical errors in hospitals. 18% of medical errors are due to inadequate availability of patient health information.

·        Only 5% of physicians maintainpatient medical information on a computer.

·        Medical records are constantly being lost. Physicians retire; hospitals and HMOs purge older records to save storage space; paper records are often lost or unavailable when needed.

·        Virtually no hospital emergency department can retrieve a patient’s critical health information when it is needed to inform timely, sometimes life-saving medical decisions.

·        On average, American adults receive only 55% of health care interventionsrecommended by evidence-based medical guidelines, including those related to preventive care.

·        Nearly one out of every two U.S. adults has difficulty understanding basic information necessary to make appropriate health decisions.

·        Healthcare costs are skyrocketing. By 2014, total US health spending is projected to constitute 18.7 percent of gross domestic product, up from 15.3 percent in 2003. 

Medical Safety Can Be Enhanced when Centralized, Complete Medical Information is Maintained by the Consumer

A growing number of health care experts and medical professionals believe the key to huge advances in patient safety may lie in empowering individuals to take control of their own medical information.

According to Delivering Consumer-centric and Information-rich Health Care, a report released by the Department of Health & Human Services in July of 2004, “Many envision a health care industry that is consumer-centric and information-rich, in which medical information follows the consumer, and information tools guide medical decisions. […] This new way will result in fewer medical errors, fewer unnecessary treatments or wasteful care, and fewer variations in care, and will ultimately improve care for all Americans.”

The personal and societal benefits of PHR use have been recognized by the US Department of Health and Human Services (http://www.hhs.gov/healthit/), as well as public and private organizations, such as Connecting for Health (http://www.ConnectingForHealth.org), The Markle Foundation (http://www.markle.org/markle_programs/healthcare/), and The American Health Information Management Association  (http://www.myphr.com/).

 

“Who cares the most about your health? You do,” asserts Pringle. “Therefore, you have the greatest incentive to ensure the accuracy and completeness of your own health information. HealthFrameTM helps you optimize your health care by compiling a complete listing of diagnostic procedures and interventions along with results, tracking trends in your health, and ensuring that complete information can be made available to any primary care physician or specialist as you require medical services.”

HealthFrameTM

The HealthFrameTM concept mirrors that of the popular and user-friendly personal financial planning and management software tools that have been used successfully by consumers for years. HealthFrameTM supports all aspects of health and wellness management and allows consumers to track their health and care, improving the quality of the health care they receive.  HealthFrameTM:

·        easily and conveniently summarizes health information from different sources

·        allows the consumer to verify that all information is accurate and up-to-date

·        tracks critical health information including progress on health indicators (e.g. weight, cholesterol, blood pressure)

·        provides a prompt, up-to-date view of an individual’s entire health picture

·        allows consumers to carry with them critical, life-saving health information

·        automatically creates a customized medical reference library based on the individual’s conditions, diagnoses, and medications, which the individual can use to inform health care decisions

·        helps reduce health care costs by identifying duplicative tests and encouraging preventive care

·        simplifies the tracking of medical expenses for taxes or insurance

Availability

HealthFrame may be purchased for $49.95 from http://www.HealthFrame.com or from authorized distributors.

About Records For Living, Inc.

Records For Living, Inc. is a pioneer in the personal information management industry and is focused on providing solutions to a broad range of health care issues.

Records For Living, Inc. has released HealthFrameTM as an innovative solution to personal health management. Records For Living, Inc. also provides professional services to our health care provider partners to support the improved exchange of medical record information between providers and patients.

Records For Living, Inc. may be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.RecordsForLiving.com/ or via email at info@RecordsForLiving.com.