I want a Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR). That’s an electronic record of my current and historic health status, under my control and private to me and the health carer’s I select. Think of it as all your health records in one place in case you ever need it.

It turns out my family needs it. My medical records are scattered in the archives of various specialists and GP’s over the years. I used to believe doctors were the experts and they’ll let me know when I need something. Unfortunately, that means they know as much about me as they can assimilate from a quick scan of my file whenever I drop by. Being male, they don’t see me too often. I’m told I suffer from high cholesterol, but I don’t know the pattern of my tests over the years. Now I take some medicine to fix it, but it’s hardly an integrated, holistic and preventative care plan.

My mother is aging, my daughter has an undiagnosed chronic condition. In both cases we’ve left it to the experts to guide us. But as keepers of the medical records I’ve allowed doctors to cater to the lowest common denominator of health care.

So the first step is gathering all my records to one GP. Then I’ll want a copy of my records. While I’m at it I’ll get my family’s records done.

The federal Australian Government has funded NEHTA National E-Health Transition Authority to get this process going. Like most bureaucracies they seem to take forever to get something everyone is happy with. So we’re looking at 3 years to implement the “government’s e-health strategy”. I don’t want to wait that long.

What’s wrong with release and revise? Quick constant beta-releases. I understand privacy, interoperability, and transmission issues. But the basics of what a PCEHR should like and a standard to allow tools to be built shouldn’t take 3 years.

I’ll write more on this as the journey continues.

I’m almost tempted to launch a startup to deliver this stuff.