How Do I Keep My Medical Records Securely?
Dear Lifehacker:
Today my wife took our dogs to the vet to have their nails trimmed. Since this was our first visit to the vet, she needed their vaccination records. Luckily, I had photos of these recordings on my phone since the last download, so sending them was incredibly quick and easy. It got me thinking – we’re having a baby soon, and having copies of basic health records for me, my wife, and my baby that can be sent easily in an emergency seems like a great idea. However, I don’t trust Google Photos to store this information securely. What are my options? Ideally I would like something like this:
1. Encrypted. 2. Cloud or otherwise easy to share and access to those I authorize. 3. Support for mobile devices, so I can access it from my phone, which we all almost always have with us.
Any help on the options available would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Yang
Dear Jan:
We congratulate ourselves and my wife on the birth of human offspring! Hope you can squeeze out on parental leave . Keeping health information is not easy, but there are many ways to keep your data secure, allowing others to access it in the event of an emergency.
You can store it locally on your computer or smartphone, sync it with your devices using a cloud storage service, or subscribe to a health information management service. Each option has advantages and disadvantages, but they all help you get health information when you need it and in a safe way.
Save it in your password manager
Security and privacy are paramount when storing medical information, so keep your records where you can store other sensitive information: a password manager.
Some password managers, like 1Password and LastPass , have cloud storage options to store images, documents, and other files along with the rest of your sensitive online information. Because password managers sync and encrypt your content across devices, you’ll have your health information wherever you are and the ability to share it with anyone.
Store in the cloud
Password managers are a safe haven for sensitive information, but if you want to share your notes more easily, consider secure cloud storage. A cloud storage service like SpiderOak uses end-to-end encryption to keep your sensitive information safe every step of the way. You can create temporary self-destructing links to exchange sensitive data with people. You have to pay, the cheapest subscription will set you back $ 5 a month (or $ 59 a year), but you get 100GB of secure storage on unlimited devices.
Use a health management service
Keeping sensitive data securely on your smartphone with a password manager is great, but you might be more fortunate if you use health information-centric services. With the proliferation of free Personal Health Record (PHR) services designed to store health information and make it easier to access, you can store your data with large companies without worrying about it being leaked or stolen.
Several large companies have cloud-based services for processing medical information. Microsoft has its own HealthVault service that allows you to collect health data from other apps and devices and import it into your medical record in addition to your digitized records.
WebMD has its own Personal Health Manager service that stores health information and can be integrated with many other third-party applications and devices. Apple is even rumored to be expanding its Health app to handle medical records, CNBC reported. This means that you can eventually sync your family’s medical history to your iPhone via iCloud. However, you should be aware that the data from your fitness devices is not protected by HIPAA laws , so you have no control over what companies do with them.