My Medical gathers together contact information for all your doctors, specialists, and other health professionals. You'll want to keep this stuff organised for a few reasons. If something happens, who should be contacted?
Medical records and your own personal health record are not the same thing. Medical records contain information about your health compiled and maintained by each of your healthcare providers.
A personal health record is information about your health compiled and maintained by you. Use your LifeLot personal health record to really tune-in and improve the quality of your healthcare.
Sometimes this information can save you the money and inconvenience of repeating routine medical tests. Even when routine procedures do need to be repeated, the information you retain can give medical care providers more insight into your personal health story.
LifeLot ensures your medical info is right at your fingertips, and your family can access it too should they need it. There may be a variety of health professionals that you visit on a regular basis, but the bulk of your medical history will be held by your primary care doctor. It's highly likely that your primary care doctor won't have the notes from a naturopath visit however!
LifeLot ensures you can gather these records together in one place - your own personal database. In a medical emergency, the delegates you choose will be able to securely access your Advanced Care Plan, and call upon other important documents when they're most needed. You don’t have to get too personal or exact to be tremendously helpful.
In our life time, we see a lot of different health professionals. If they're especially skilled at what they do, you may wish to recommend them to a friend or family member, or call upon them again yourself.
It’s so easy to forget or misplace names and contact info, and your notes are valuable to hold on to for future reference.
No more waiting on others to provide this info for you. Access the records you want instantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sensitive medical records are stored by your doctors, hospitals, and other institutions. This general health information is valuable to your family and friends.
While some of your medical history will be in the National Health Index (NHI) database somewhere, it's likely that you'll have some medical records dotted around elsewhere and not even realise it. Here are some examples to get you started:
Remember that "little" list of health professionals mentioned above? Ask for your notes on the spot at your appointment then upload them to My Medical. Done.
End of Life Planning; the Perfect Gift For You and Your FamilyLife is full of twists and turns. Planning and gathering together all these jigsaw pieces now will relieve a lot of stress later. Whether you have a terminal illness, are involved in an accident, or embarking on the one adventure every human must eventually take into the great beyond; end of life planning helps you to become more efficient, engaged in your life and your family can easily take over if needed. LifeLot is simple to set up, free to try, and it can make a world of difference for your family if something happens to you.
Record all of the medicines you are taking, including over-the-counter medications, vitamins, herbal supplements, and other treatments.
Include the name of the doctor who prescribed the medication and why you are taking the medicine (e.g., high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol).
The reasons you're taking it may be obvious to you, but it's also helpful for your family to know what these reasons are.
Recording this information will help promote your health and safety by:
Your records may contain some or all of the documents below. Depending upon your illness or injury, you may use the services of the emergency room, intensive care unit, a physical therapist, or home health nurse.
Often these specialised services have unique evaluation, measurement, and progress reports which you may also find in your health record.
Operative Report
A document that describes surgery performed and gives the names of surgeons and assistants.
Pathology Report
A pathology report describes tissue removed during an operation and the diagnosis based on examination of that tissue.
Discharge Summary
A concise summary of a hospital stay, including the reason for admission, significant findings from tests, procedures performed, therapies provided, response to treatment, condition at discharge, and instructions for medications, activity, diet, and follow-up care.
It's likely the people closest to you know about any illnesses you manage on a day-to-day basis, but there are others that might need this information at some point.
A child could be totally unaware of a heart condition that runs in the family. Share the basics, and start a medical history chat, without making things too uncomfortable or upsetting.
Depending upon your illness, you may use the services of the emergency room, intensive care unit, a physical therapist, or home health nurse. Often these specialised services have unique evaluation, measurement, and progress reports wich you may also find in your health record.
Some allergies are minor inconveniences, others might be life or death and require you to wear a Medic Alert bracelet.
This is exactly the info you want to share with your family and your Powers of Attorney.
Do you have the temporary loan of any medical equipment that will need to be returned at some point? Avoid receiving a surprise bill from the loaning company! Record all of the borrowing details in your LifeLot account so it can be dealt with instead of gathering dust in the corner room.
Here’s the info to get in order:
Health insurance can get very complicated very quickly, especially when you or a dependent experience a medical emergency. There are two main types of health insurance available in New Zealand. A medical insurance policy is generally renewable annually or monthly, and you may be required to submit regular health checks.
If and when you apply for health insurance, the insurer will want to collect details of most or all of the above. Easily retrieve a copy and store it in your LifeLot account, or have your trusted professional load it in for you.
What type of primary health insurance do you have?
As well as primary health insurance, you can purchase supplementary insurance cover for add-ons, like dental work, prescriptions diagnostic or screening treatments.
Advance Care Planning is a process of thinking about and sharing your wishes for future health and personal care. It can help you tell others what would be important if you were ill and unable to communicate. The information in an advance care plan is shared with your loved ones and your health care team so treatment and care plans can support what matters to you.
It's especially important to have these conversations when you are well. The conversations you have with your family and loved ones when thinking about your Advance Care Plan may be difficult. LifeLot allows you to record your thoughts without having to have these hard conversations.
If you do complete an Advance Care Plan, it needs to be shared with your healthcare team and anyone else you want to have access to it like your medical delegate. It is important your family and loved ones know you have a plan and where it is kept.
It is also important you review your plan on a regular basis; maybe every year around your birthday or some other significant date. The beauty of having your Advance Care Plan in your LifeLot account is that you can add to it as often as you like, and change your decisions at any time using our simple ACP template.
And as much as we prefer not to dwell on the fact that we will all die someday, advance care planning can make a potentially difficult, challenging, and painful process easier for the people we love.
Read more: Deanna's Story - a fight against mesothelioma cancer | What is Advance Care Planning
There's a lot more to life these days and LifeLot acts as your very own personal database from which the information you gather and store can be retrieved quickly and presented to you in different ways.
The information that is entered in My Medical will feed into many important document templates that you can create, like a Will, Enduring Power of Attorney or Advance Care Plan.
Often the only time you seem to think about your important documents is when you need them. And, often you can't find them because you either don't have an organised and centralised system for storing your important documents and/or the last time you needed them, you simply tossed it back into the sea of papers in your home office instead of putting it back where it belonged!
There is probably some other stuff that only sits in your head and your family would love to know. LifeLot ensures important information is passed through generations. In a medical emergency, a delegate will be able to securely access an Advance Care Plan or Will, and call upon other important documents when they're most needed.
It's simple to set up, free to try, and it can make a world of difference for your family if something happens to you.