Create a family health history with the help of the surgeon general.
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Highlights
- An exciting new online tool utilizes family history to improve patient well-being and quality of care.
- For a few of the features of the surgeon general’s new My Family Health Portrait, click here.
- To create a health portrait of your family, click here.
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Some key features of the new version of My Family Health Portrait are:
Convenience – Consumers can easily access the tool on the Web and completing the health portrait takes only 15-20 minutes.
Privacy – Consumers can build a family health tree, but the personal information entered is not kept by a government or other site.
Sharing – Because the information is in electronic form, it can easily be shared with relatives or with doctors.
Personalization – Family history information can make doctors and patients aware of potential health concerns they should watch out for.
We’ve all heard how important knowledge of family health history is to good health care. Now there’s an easy and thorough new online tool for capturing such information. It’s the surgeon general’s My Family Health Portrait and it’s free!
My Family Health Portrait was originally launched in 2004, and was enhanced with new features in 2009. The new tool was developed under Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt’s Initiative on Personalized Health Care. “The tool is built on health information technology standards that make it more convenient for consumers and more useful for practitioners,” said Leavitt.
Ready for 21st-Century Medicine
Said acting Surgeon General Steven Galson, “Today, with our growing knowledge of genetics, family history is becoming even more important. The new tool will help consumers and clinicians alike. It will also serve as a platform for developing new risk assessment software that will help in screening and prevention of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions.”
“A strong family health history tool can be an important element for guiding medical decision-making, especially in the area of cancer screening, prevention, and early detection,” said Lance Armstrong, founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is linking to this new online tool.
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