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My mom would just bring a briefcase full of printed medical records to every appointment.


You may jest but I wouldn't mind this model. i.e. Records are under a digital lock to which I hold the key, and can grant access to a medical professional service provider for a period of time with set access expiry.

Written records at least provided some physical locality that made me feel less at risk, and it was also easy for me to ask for a photocopy for my own records (I'm surprised how many people just entrust this to their institutions).


the issue arises when you are unconcious and there are certain risks to treating you the staff needs to know about. Maybe your throat closes for benedryl but you're showing obvious signs of an allergy? Maybe you have a pre-existing condition which gives you symptoms that signal a stroke? the risk is always going to be there


They don't need my full medical history for that. Just a highlights or "in case of emergency" summary.

Humans dealt with these issues just fine before records were centralized. And still do e.g. when I travel to another jurisdiction. Being an engaged and proactive actor in my recordkeeping actually improves my posture.

I deal with the same issues when it comes to estate planning (e.g. what happens if I become unable to make decisions for myself). There are tactics and contingencies available (like trusted individuals, powers of attorney, etc) and I don't need my full financial background to be openly available to thousands of participants in the system to accommodate. Society and the concept of trust did not evolve over millions of years to end up becoming nothing more than an individual and a computer somewhere in the cloud.


Isn’t this the case with most emergency situations? My guess is that if that I end up in the ER unconscious they’ll have no records on me…


What if we all get microchipped? Maybe have duplicates so that the time you cut your arm off doesn’t mean your record gets left behind.


How does this work out in practice, given that doctors generally only give you 10 or maybe 15 minutes before they start pushing you out the door?




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