Tim de Jardine -Entrepreneur

I had to visit the hospital today and while talking with a doctor there about trends in the medical industry he asked me a question about my medical history. I could not answer him and he could not look it up. The only person who would know is my usual Doctor. Why? Because of the thousands of private practices in New Zealand almost all of them are operating in silos. My information is treated as their IP and me as their customer. The only one who has access to this infomration is my doctor.

If I were to leave my current General Practitioner (GP) I would have to sign a paper authorising this and fax them it. Only then can the GP “release” MY information. Why is this you ask? they would lose funding by losing a patient (customer).

Picture a world where medical information is stored by a GP and then uploaded to a central secure and private repository. If I travel down to queenstown and need to go to the doctor they can access my full medical history in seconds.

As a patient, I’m not concerned with their funding, I want them to make an informed decision. Believe it or not some doctors are STILL operating with no information systems; that’s not informed.

Innovate or Die comes to mind. There is absolutely not enough reasons not to utilise these simple technologies.

The Doctor swore to me the system would never happen and it would never exist…I cited that internet banking should not exist and email shouldnt be stored online…but it is. At first ideas appear radical, then they are denied, then accepted and finally embraced as status-quo. This such idea falls into that category.

My file is My IP, my safety record; not the GP I belong to. I paid for that file, therefore I should be able to choose to make it available to all in times of need.