Managing Health Records and Follow-ups Associated with Chronic Health Conditions

A chronic health condition is defined by the CDC as a condition that lasts for a year or longer, affects daily living activities or requires ongoing medical treatment. Six out of ten Americans have at least one chronic condition and four out of ten have two or more. These chronic illnesses can be caused by lifestyle behaviors, such as smoking, or by medical factors, such as spontaneous or hereditary conditions. Some examples of these chronic conditions include:

• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s
• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Arthritis
• Epilepsy

Having a chronic health condition can be challenging in many ways. Navigating treatment options, medications and communicating with multiple physicians or specialists can feel overwhelming. On top of that, patients must juggle frequent medical imaging, regular appointments and numerous tests. This article will explore ways to manage follow-up visits and access imaging health records, streamlining the process and offering patients better understanding and more control.

 

 

The challenges of multiple imaging records in chronic care

Chronic care often requires multiple physicians or specialists, frequent appointments and various diagnostic tests. This is especially true if the patient’s condition needs to be monitored over time, with testing and medical imaging exams repeated to assess any changes or progression. Here are some common challenges for patients who have imaging records from multiple imaging clinics or hospitals:

1. Sharing records with multiple providers: Because there may be various treatments or care plans from different providers, it can be challenging for patients to keep everyone in the loop if their care team includes physicians from multiple facilities. Accessing results from multiple patient portals, sharing these records with different physicians and tracking numerous follow-up recommendations can be time-consuming for the patient.
2. Difficulty tracking long-term health conditions: Patients with chronic conditions often have many imaging records from exams that happen over the course of years. These records are essential for evaluating treatments, disease progression and other changes. Keeping up with these changes can become more challenging when records are spread across different facilities and patient portals.
3. Emergency situations: If a patient ends up in the Emergency Room (ER) for any reason, accessing their past health imaging from multiple facilities in a timely manner can be difficult. This information is important for informing ER doctors of the patient’s health history.
4. Accessing older imaging records: If a chronic condition has been treated over a long period, some imaging records may be in outdated formats, such as on CDs or USBs. Storing these records electronically in one location makes accessing them much easier.
5. Privacy restrictions for caregivers: For patients with caregivers who need access to their medical information, patient privacy laws require signed permission. If there are multiple medical providers, legal consent must be granted to each facility.

 

Benefits of consolidated imaging records for chronic care

There are several benefits to patients having access to their imaging reports on a single platform:

1. Comprehensive health history: Patients can keep all of their imaging records in a single location, making it easy to access all of their imaging results.
2. Coordination across specialists: When the patient’s entire medical team has access to the same information, it ensures consistency of care and a more comprehensive approach to treatment.
3. Sharing information across multiple healthcare providers: Broader teams of healthcare providers can access imaging no matter where the patient goes. This ensures that hospitals, emergency facilities, clinics and new providers will all have the same information, even if the patient is traveling. This negates the need to keep track of imaging across multiple patient portals.
4. Sharing information with family members: For patients with family or friends who are caretakers or want to be involved, easily sharing reports can help keep them in the loop.
5. Better understanding: Having access to historical imaging exam records and personalized insights about their results allows the patient to better understand the progression of their condition, enabling them to ask more informed questions to their provider.
6. Keeping track of follow-up recommendations: Follow-up imaging and other next steps can be easily tracked from one location, reducing the risk of missed follow-ups. This is especially helpful if there are multiple physicians and recommendations at the same time.

 

PocketHealth’s role in chronic condition management

PocketHealth is well-suited to assist patients with chronic conditions. Centralized storage of imaging records makes it simple to share with any medical provider. Sharing these records is straightforward, with options to send them to care facilities and physicians via email, fax or print.

In addition to medical record access, PocketHealth offers powerful tools to help patients understand their health. Report Reader provides clear, straightforward definitions of the medical terminology in imaging reports. Patients can click or tap any underlined words to see their meaning. This is paired with illustrations and highlights of anatomy in patients’ imaging to help them better understand their results. MyCare Navigator further empowers patients by generating personalized questions they can ask their medical providers based on findings within their report.

 

Personal accounts of managing chronic conditions with better imaging access

Many patients have personally benefited from using PocketHealth to manage their chronic health conditions. For Kristy, a rare disease patient, having all of her records on PocketHealth allows her to attend healthcare appointments “…feeling informed and empowered because I have the information at my fingertips.” She also appreciates that faster access to her reports reduces the stress and anxiety of waiting for test results. With PocketHealth, patients gain access as soon as the imaging report is released.

For Blair, celiac disease had a dramatic impact on her bone health, leading to frequent bone density imaging. As she began her journey to take control of her chronic conditions, she quickly realized how complicated it could be to gather all of her medical records. Eventually, she discovered PocketHealth, which greatly simplified the process. “Having easy access to my records was not only helpful when going from doctor to doctor, it gave me the tools to prepare for my appointments. I could look back at previous consults, think about the questions I’d ask and ultimately find better treatment options.”

 

Take control of your health with PocketHealth

Patients with chronic conditions already have a lot to manage. Having easy access to all of their imaging records removes one more stress from their to-do list. Efficient and convenient, PocketHealth offers personalized insights based on their reports, faster access to imaging results and streamlined record sharing. Patients can take control of their medical history, empowering them to have more productive conversations with their care team and be their own advocates as they navigate their health journey.