Every month, it’s the same old, same old. I make the trip to my local lab, have my blood drawn and tested, and hope I don’t hear from my doctor. Such is life while managing an ongoing health issue.
If he needs to see you, we’ll call, the nurse at my doctor’s office says.
Which I suppose is well and good, except often, I’d like to know what my blood work says – even if I’m in the clear. As a patient, don’t I have the right to see the results from my own tests? Of course I do. And now, I can. Last Tuesday, as I rolled my sleeve down and prepared to leave the lab, the technician handed me a leaflet with a tracking number.
You can now access your results online, she said with a smile.
Sweet success! I simply had to create an account and provide the info I received, et voila! In 24 hours, I became part of the digital health initiative.
What is digital health?
It’s an easy, secure and digital way to manage you and your family’s health! Simply put, digital health allows authorized health care providers to quickly access your health information in order to make important decisions about your care. Think about it: if you still have a traditional paper medical file, it does not follow you everywhere you go. So, in the unfortunate event you had to make a trip to the emergency room or a walk-in clinic, the attending doctor would not have access to your complete health record.
But imagine if they did! With digital health, this is possible.
Being able to access your digital health records eases the process in making an accurate diagnosis and it reduces the need for unnecessary duplicate tests. It’s especially important if you see multiple doctors or specialists, or in an emergency situation, if you’re not able to speak for yourself. (This hits home, as I have aging parents, young children, and take multiple medications myself.) In a nutshell, digital health allows for more quality patient care because everyone’s connected!
Digital health gives Canadians and their family members access to their own information online, allowing them to access lab results as they become available (like me! I’ve already checked out my recent lab results and am happy to say I’ll be here for at least another month, ha!) And confirm their health information is accurate and complete. Talk about patient empowerment! There are so many tools and information available out there that allow us to feel more like a partner with our doctors. Who wouldn’t want to be in the loop when it comes to our well-being?
I encourage you to learn more about digital health and how you can apply it to yourself- it’s awesome and it’s the future of health! November 16th – 22, 2015 is Digital Health Week. Join the celebration and conversation by following #ThinkDigitalHealth on Twitter. And, for more information about Canada’s digital health plan, visit the Better Health Together website.
Digital Health is here! I am so excited to see how technology will continue to transform health care.
Although this post has been sponsored by Canada Health Infoway, the opinions and language are my own.
We’ve been accessing our lab results online for quite a while now. We love the convenience of it!
Thanks will check into this,interesting post!
interesting, although my Doctor’s office is really good, but this would take a bit of a work load off of them.
That is very interesting. I didn’t know that this was something that was available.
Sounds interesting.
This is great! Didn’t know that this was now available in Ontario, will have to check it out next time I get lab work done. I would love to be able to see my results.
thanks for the info Lena, I had no idea this service was available & will be looking into it :) thank you
That’s fantastic that we now have access to our own test results & peace of mind instead of wondering if doctor’s office missed notifying me about untoward results
This is a really great idea! I haven’t come across it yet where I live but hopefully it happens soon.
I haven’t come across it yet in my area,but i wish it was this could be so helpful to so many
I had no idea we could do this and I have a lot of health issues so this would be really convenient for me, as long as I can understand everything.
We still have nothing available like this in our area but it would be so helpful,i guess they do the bigger area’s first we are usually behind the times here in Newfoundland !
I wish we had the convenient of this service in my area,it would save so much money !