Digital health records can be a powerful tool for teaching children about all aspects of life
For your children, digital health records won’t seem like a “new” idea at all. They are coming of age at a time when most doctors are starting to share health records with their patients as a standard practice through use of a patient portal. They’ll never know what it was like not to have access to their health information through their phone. As the parent, your job is to teach them how to get and store their information, so they’ll have it for the future. Lessons about being responsible for yourself translate easily into lessons about being responsible for your health and care information.
Digital health records become a convenient tool to teach them how their decisions can have real health consequences. It’s an easier way to visualize history and the events that have transpired. It also becomes a great tool to help establish goals for the future. A “care plan” documents the things we need to do going forward so we will be healthy. A care plan could include educational health goals or plans for staying safe after the prom. As holistically-oriented apps become available, better dashboards will use the data to help us all live healthier lives.
Keeping digital health records can help us have the right conversations with each other over time. As our children begin to navigate life choices for themselves, these digital health records create a sort of “life clock” and a “wellness compass” at the same time. They are a source of personal data that we each can use to glene important information that helps us gain knowledge and new insights about our lives.
