Data Visualization at the Doctor
Touching a little on the Data Visualization in Everyday Life post, I found this post by Ben Fry wondering if electronic medical records are about data . I’ve wondered that too. Right now I’m in Michigan and would like to go to the doctor. I’ve lived in three different states since graduating college and have not done as good of a job as I could have with transferring my medical records.
While the majority of this is my fault, I do believe that the whole process of storing my medical data is rather archaic. How do they organize, find, store and understand the information in those aisles of folders? And, how exactly does anyone, including the doctor, read his or her own handwriting? Usually that stuff is chicken scratch.
There have been efforts to take medical records online. Google Health seems to be the most easy-to-find option. But, I guess my biggest question is with all the advanced technology in use in factories, businesses and our personal lives, how is there not a way to automate make going to the doctor more technologically savvy?
I’d imagine there being a tablet pc on a secured network where the doctor can see all past treatments, clearly read notes from a previous diagnosis, cross-reference with other similar symptoms and update the medical record in question in real-time. Not to mention the possibilities of the user tracking his or her data (think: moods, food, exercise, drinks, smoking, blood pressure, etc) for the doctor to see hard evidence to recommend a treatment.
But back to my original point, the data to be tracked, organized and stored here could be used to help see trends in ailments, successful treatments, easily present the data to the doctor immediately and clearly.
Tags: infographics, infoviz, medicine, quantified self, statistics