Well yes, but medical information when it is "on-line" can all too easily get into the wrong hands. It could affect one's insurance, employment, child custody, parental fitness battles in court etc if someone got access to one's records who hadn't been given permission to access them.

For example: What if someone sought help for mental stress/anger management from their doc and that doc entered a comment that indicated a concern that the patient may be suicidal/violent? How would that reflect on that person's child custody rights if their X-spouse or social services got hold of that info...perhaps years later?

We are now required to keep medical records for 16 years by law. I keep my patient's files on paper, although I do have access to their other medical records that are on-line. It is quite interesting to read how much information that is recorded in comments for patients that I know quite well, is questionable or outright incorrect. Yet, that information becomes part of that person's permanent record; and may be taken as fact. Even some of what appears in my own records is incorrect.

What if down the road, the law makers decide that insurance companies, employers, researchers or others have a right to access one's medical records? Would you want your employer and potentially your co-workers, to have access to your entire medical record?

In my province, it came to light last year that a university had been given access to some patient records by our Medical Services Plan as part of a research study without patient's consent. That information, which included the medical records of several thousand patients was stored on discs. Those discs were subsequently stolen from the vehicle of one of the researchers, and were never recovered.

I may be old fashioned, but I still believe that what one discusses with their docs or other medical practitioners should remain confidential, and that confidentiality should be fiercely guarded until it is released by the patient to named individuals.

There is the issue of potential hacking as well.
The whole business of on-line information of this nature being so accessible makes me uneasy.

With love, Erika