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Welcome to OpenHealthRecord. The service is still under development but there's already enough functionality to be marginally useful. If you want to provide feedback, there's a mailing list here. Please let us know what you think. The version of OpenHealthRecord on this site is a basic non-commercial reference implementation. There may be other implementations (we hope there will be) that provide additional services and capabilities, or deliver the benefits of OpenHealthRecord in different ways.

OpenHealthRecord

OpenHealthRecord is a personal health record that is totally owned and controlled by you.

You have total and absolute control over your medical record. You control what goes into it, and you control who has access to each part of it.

Your privacy is ensured because your identity is never and will never be linked to your record. Only you know who you are.

We will provide ways for you to print your records or share them electronically with your doctor, hospital, dentist, optician or anyone else you want or need to discuss your health with.

When travelling you can be assured that your health record is immediately available from any device with internet access. Wherever you are, if you become ill, you'll no longer be treated in ignorance.

Because all records are stored anonymously your privacy is ensured. This enables you to find information about people with similar medical conditions and to see what treatment, side effects and outcomes they had. It also enables us to make all medical records open and accessible to researchers and anyone who has an interest in health care data.

How it works

You can record all your medical history on the web-site. There are simple forms for allergies, vaccinations, current medications. There are places to record regular measurements like weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

Once you have created your medical record you are given a key. This key allows you to access your record at any time. You can also make additional keys which you can give to your doctor, carer or anyone else so that they can view all or just parts of your record. You can block access to anyone at any time.

If you choose to share it, you can allow everyone to see your data. However, they can never find out who you are from that data so your privacy is assured.

Sharing your data helps other people with similar medical conditions, see what medications you are taking and the outcome of your treatment. Equally, you can see other people's data and see how they got on.

How do I get started

You can get started by clicking here, you'll be assigned a key automatically and you can just start entering any information about yourself that you know or have handy. You don't have to put in anything you don't want to. If you already have a key then login here.

You'll immediately be given a key that you can use to access your details at any time in the future from any computer. If you want we can send a copy of your key to you by email, that way you won't lose it as long as you keep the email.

So click here to get started.

I just want to browse

If you are not ready to store your medical record on-line you can still use OpenHealthRecord to browse and find out about other people with similar conditions and treatments. Click here to browse the shared database.

Privacy

Your privacy is very important. Because we do not store any personally identifiable information, even if you data is made public it would be very difficult for anyone to link it back to you.

We do not store permanently any information that might be used to link your data with your identity.

Mutual benefits

We encourage you to share the data that you enter. By doing this other people will be able to use this information, for example, to be more informed about the drugs commonly used for a particular condition.

Some healthcare providers re-sell data about their patients to drug companies. Your data has a value which benefits the healthcare provider and not you. By making healthcare data free you get an immediate benefit. You also benefit research groups that do not have the resources of the large drug companies and cannot afford to do studies requiring statistically large amounts of data.

Open health records benefit everyone and disadvantage nobody.

How can I help?

Everyone can help by using OpenHealthRecord and giving us feedback on the mailing list.

If you want to help with the development of the project check out the Road Map and the Task List. If something interests you speak up on the mailing list.