Juhan’s HealthCard

Juhan’s HealthCard, originally uploaded by juhansonin.

I serve with Juhan Sonin on the CCHIT Personal Health Records Workgroup. Juhan is an expert in usability and design of personal health services (compared to myself, for sure) and is helping the group understand the potential for certifying for usability of personal health record services.

Juhan notes that he uses his own personal health informaiton in his designs, so I wanted to confirm that it was okay to repost here. Confirmation is below. It can be easier than it is today to know the health status of a person, yes? See what you think.

Thanks; I use the HealthCard during EVERY nurse/doc/hospital/insurance transaction. Amazing reactions from ppl.

Anything I post = public and abusable.
All should be CC licensed.

HACK and ABUSE at will.

Thanks Ted,
Juhan

Nifty wallet card by the way. May I post to my blog (I assume yes, since it’s on Flickr..)?

Ted

8 Comments

This health card is missing a bunch of goodies… on this card or further expansion:

* kid-friendly version

* general pop, easy to digest version (less data, more infographics)

* post-op version, recent scans

* full body representation w/ailments, issues

* holistic health practices

* global health id number (whoa!)

* micro family health picture (some visual analytics)

Thanks Ted for posting,

Juhan

Wow. How does all that data get on there? (I looked at the Flickr thread and didn't see explanation.) And how often do you update it? Is the steps/week data from an e-pedometer? How about the calories?

I've been thinking, so many people in the E/P/*R game just talk about why they can't make interoperable data, it seems inevitable to me that we (the pts) are just going to say screw it and develop our own and let the providers become interoperable with *us*. So of course I'm wondering if this is a step in that direction.

btw, I bet the reason those providers (see Flickr) had no trouble with your card is that they're accustomed to some pts coming in with the info on some piece of paper.

Very, very impressive! How is it possible to take a closer look at how it works…..all the quesitons e-patient Dave has already asked.

The data is handjammed into my healthcard. I collect, massage, and maintain the data. This is not an ideal service.

Laika (http://www.projectlaika.org) is a possible route for a web-based data entry service into a CDA/C32/CDA-type doc. We don't have a slick service running behind the HealthCard…. YET.

* steps = pedometer

* calories = guestimation based on short, calorie counting experiments (where's my iPhone app that snaps a picture of the food and does the calculation?)

* cholesterol = self-tests every other month

* BP, O2 = Welch Allyn unit in my office (http://flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/554610510/) but $10 BP cuffs work fine when you look across lots of collected data

…..

Just ordered a GoWear (http://www.gowearfit.com/) and looking forward to the FitBig (http://www.fitbit.com/).

We need a personal health doc "standard" a la the IRS 1040. Where's the standard view of EVERYONE's health data?

Juhan,

Thanks for bringing your expertise into this world – it's welcomed!

On the topic of self blood pressure measurement, there are actually guidelines around what kinds of meters to use (ones that have been validated – not all $10 models have been), that they should be calibrated regularly, and the technique taught to patients.

If these are not done, the risk is that a person would be over or under-medicated, unnecessarily.

If these are done, there's a greater chance that a patient will have their blood pressure controlled well which will in turn reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke, and self-measurement now has good evidence behind it.

Fortunately, the American Heart Association did a nice job of putting all of this together in their position paper published this year (I reviewed it on this blog if you click this link).

Best,

Ted

By Post Author

Spot on Ted.

The $10 BP cuff is a general statement about the dramatic price drop of sensors. I needed to be more clear.

As the price of sensors approaches 0, the cost of collecting data approaches 0.

Even expensive machines take funny measurements. I was getting my BP taken pre-operation (for my torn bicep) last week and it seemed unusually low; I asked to take it again – I knew my BP data pretty well – but the nurse trusted my answer. I previously mentioned to her that I self-tested every week. She also noted that the BP machine accuracy "varies from day to day".

If one collects lots of data, even with a cheap, low-accuracy sensor, one can get a good gist of the pattern.

I'll check out the meter list… thanks mucho.

Now if we could get a simple data standard across medical devices, we'd be in good shape!

-Juhan

Ted Eytan, MD