The Mayo Clinic has announced the launch of the Mayo Clinic Health Manager, an online application that stores your medical information in a single convenient location.

The health manager is designed for use by individuals to keep track of their own medical histories — diseases and conditions, prescription medications, immunizations, doctor visits, referrals, etc. You can also receive recommendations from the experts of the Mayo Clinic based on the information you provide.

The “prepare for appointment” feature allows you to gather all relevant information in a convenient print-out to bring to your doctor appointment.

According to The Mayo Clinic News, the Health Manager uses the Microsoft Health Vault system and is privacy and security enhanced.

Depending on your point of view, this could be an amazing tool for tracking your own family’s health information — or a huge privacy concern. I see it both sides of the argument at this point.

On one hand, I understand how, over a period of years, we can lose track of doctors we’ve seen, tests that were run and what the results were. I’ve forgotten the names of prescription drugs and dosages. Lapses like than can cost precious time in an emergency or when searching for a diagnosis. It could easily become a matter of life and death. It makes a helluva lot more sense than having various paper records scattered around.

The convenience of having all that information at my fingertips, no matter where I am, is tempting. Then again, the information will only be as good as the information I enter into the system in the first place. 

On the other hand, I have a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach at the very thought of it. All that personal medical information in one place — it’s hard to have faith in issues of privacy at all these days.

If you plan to take advantage of the service, the privacy policy on the Mayo Clinic site definitely requires a thorough read.

For now, I’m just taking a wait and see approach to the whole thing. One way or another, digital health records will be the norm in the not-too-distant future. Can’t stop progress and all. 

In the meantime, will you take advantage of the Mayo Clinic Health Manager, or do you fear for your privacy? Please take the poll below and share your opinion.