The Purpose of MyHealthRecord is to guide you in understanding, recording and communicating the information that is important to you, your family and your health-care providers when it comes to your health and medical care. There are questions and sections which may not apply to each individual, and that is OK. Each section is meant as a guide for recording the information that an individual may need in regards to their health, in a relevant and organized fashion. There are guided sections for recording medications and allergies, physicians and other health care providers information, complete medical history lists, and even for tracking appointment details. It also provides examples and resources for planning ahead for a healthy future (eg. an up-to-date schedule of Immunizations and Cancer Screening for adults in Canada), and a place to record what and when these were completed.

While all adult Canadians will benefit from maintaining an accurate record of their health-related information, it is especially important for those over the age of 50 and/or those with various chronic diseases and multiple care-providers or physicians. When any individual receives a referral to a Specialist Physician (eg. Cardiologist, Respirologist, or Dermatologist), they will expect him or her to be able to provide a full range of information regarding their past and present medical situation, including (but not limited to) their full past medical history, family history, medications they currently take (or have taken in the past), other physicians they are seeing (or have seen), along with a full history of the problem you are seeing them for (including symptoms history, investigations done, and treatments). With an organizer like MyHealthRecord in hand, this becomes a much easier task.

The stress of maintaining and communicating an individual’s health history will also often fall on the family of the patient, which can create even more stress in an already difficult time. Most elderly patients have a lengthy and complicated medical story, where time lines can be easily confused, and medications and test results are often forgotten. Some will even have multiple appointments with several different physicians for a number of health problems. Caretakers can find peace of mind in assisting their loved ones create an organized record of their medical history that will be there to help answer difficult questions in times when the patient is not able to answer themselves. Even further, MyHealthRecord provides a section to learn and record information regarding Advance Care Planning in Canada, which can help individuals and their caretakers plan for the future.

MyHealthRecord is purposefully formatted and presented in a physical rather than digital form for several reasons. Many will find their binder to be an excellent complement to a digital record of their medical data, while others will be less comfortable with using technology for storing health-related information. Regardless, most patients continue to receive and use a large amount of paper-based information and necessary documents, and are faced with how to store and organize them in a useful way. Because this organizer comes stored in a standard-sized 3-ring binder, it is easy to add and remove pages, including information sheets, forms, printed results, and even receipts. You can resort or add sections (eg for insurance information and forms), copy and store lists that you might need multiples of (eg. medications and immunizations), and add binder pockets for extra storage (eg. receipts and drug inserts). Keep blank paper for taking notes and expanding sections on the go, and even add printed calendars for appointment and symptom tracking. And finally, remember- you can always make the move to a bigger binder if needed in the future!