Tag Archives: medical

Google Health, a good start.

2008.05.19 – 5:57 pm PDT

I read today first on LinuxMedNews that Google Health has launched.

Upon accepting the additional Google Health agreements for my Google Account, I was shown a list of eight partners where I could link up to for importing data. Nice for now, I want MORE.  I easily linked my Walgreens prescription info thereby adding that part of my medical history.  Which it still hasn’t done quite yet as of writing this.  I highly doubt State Fund Insurance Compensation ([tag]SCIF[/tag]) will ever become a partner, if they do I can only forsee good coming of it.  I am also populating some other fields too as I write.

I am very impressed with the quality of the interface for adding basic health information, like height, weight, blood type along with Conditions, Medications, Allergies, Test Results, and Immunizations.  It is quite clean and is a perfect example of what I’ve come to expect from Google.

Now for the fault.  There is no way for a person to their own documents, records and images to the system.  Not too sure how much use I will really get out of the Google Health platform until that roadblock has past.  But even then it’s a good start with what information it can collect.  I’d like to see something where a person could scan their document and then batch upload the images to Google for Optical Character Recognition or other processing.

TechCrunch has a more thorough image filled post if you’re interested.

Seeing that they want to host all of my data, it would be nice if I could some how link my Google Calendar which has all of my thousands of appointments and such, so that I can be easily reimbursed for mileage somehow.  Maybe with the Google AppEngine?  /me wishes he could sit down, then functionally design and build such a thing.

By px | Posted in internet, technology, thoughts | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Dear Google

2008.02.21 – 9:52 pm PST

In the news today, Google Health got a lot of press, regarding their pilot plan for health information access.  I can only hope someone from Google happens upon my blog and is able to offer their company’s help.

Dear Google,

The amount of paper consumed in the process of my Workers’ Compensation case is immense, it’s also mind numbingly difficult to lookup and consume information.  Right now the amount of information I possess related to my case could easily fill a filling cabinet or three, it’s completely unorganized, and it grows every week it seems with more copies of the copies I’ve already received.  When I got injured almost 7 years ago I had no idea I would become a custodian to my medical records in addition to my own lawyer and advocate.  I would like you to please take into consideration opening up your project and service to me.  I could really use the help, and I would especially like it if the fruits our labor could be of service to others in my situation in the future.

sincerely,

-r0b friedman

By px | Posted in personal, technology, workers comp | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Interview with a spine surgeon part 2; General Update.

2007.11.02 – 6:05 pm PDT

Here I sit bored and lonely in my hotel room with my Dad snoozing away, I have nothing to do so I’ll tell you all about my day.

So only after getting jerked around for the last 3 months by the insurance company, [tag]SCIF[/tag], I had another appointment today with the surgeon I had seen back on July 17th. This time my Dad came with me so he could meet the surgeon. We discussed the surgery some more, and set a date for the procedure.

For those wondering what the name of the surgery it is called; Anterior Cervical Diskectomy and Fusion with Instrumentation and Allograft Bone C5-C7. This pretty much means in English, they are going to go through the front side of my neck, operate using a microscope, remove the disc material from the 2 areas, and carve out a 1cm notch in each vertebra they took the disc material from, and place cadaver bone in the spaces, finally placing and anchoring a titanium plate like thing to hold it all together. All this should take around 2 hours and leave a small? scar he told me.

The surgery is going to take place on Monday December 3rd, 2007 around 7:30 AM at the Irvine Hospital. (This is cutting it relatively close to the expiration date, 2007.12.11, SCIF had set for my surgery) After my surgery; I’ll have to stay in the hospital for at least 1 overnight(so everyone come visit me please!); in the state for at least a week as I won’t be able to drive or travel home to Arizona, and have follow up visits with my surgeon every 2 months for a couple years to follow.

Hopefully before?/most likely after the surgery, my status will change from Permanent and Stationary back to Totally Temporarily Disabled, which will mean I will have money for a place to live in California(fingers crossed). As most of my friends know, for various reasons, living in Arizona makes dealing with my injury quite difficult. With assistance from my friend Neil, today I did go checkout an apartment where I can live and keep my dog, but it’s all the way up in West Los Angeles/Westwood area, which is way far away from my friends and [tag]Primary Treating Physician[/tag] in Orange County. Alas I have never been able to find a place to live with my dog since I had to move from Irvine at the end of 2003.

Not that many read this blog… but ANYONE reading this who knows of any roomate openings or apartments without dog breed restrictions in Orange County please let me know!!! I am on a relatively short time frame for moving, again hopefully before my surgery.

OK, I’m done rambling on and on for now. Hopefully Saturday, tomorrow, will yield more apartment possibilities. We’ll be looking around the Long Beach and surrounding areas.

[tags]interview, medical, spine surgeon, allograft bone, titanium plate, anterior cervical diskectomy, fingers crossed, Orange County, California, travel, thoughts, Los Angeles, friends, dog breed, apartment search[/tags]

By px | Posted in personal, travel | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

my interview with a spine surgeon take two; part 1

2007.07.17 – 1:13 pm PDT

While I do not know exactly where to begin. I know I’m pissed off, angry, depressed, anxious, sad, happy and scared. Certainly not in that or any relative order. Having now interviewed two surgeons, I’ve come away this time with a higher level of comfort with this second individual. Not to say that the first individual I deal with earlier this year was any better or worse, they both were highly recommended by my [tag]PTP[/tag], another Doctor whom I trust.

Having now said how I feel, I guess I should just try and say what’s on my mind.

The interview/evaluation was OK, for lack of better words. I’m definitely hesitating when it comes to this, but I should just say it. The surgeon told me, briefly, that some of the problems/symptoms I have with my body are fixable via neck surgery. My lower back, the which encompasses the biggest issues are not.

That’s all I really feel like writing now, I’ll add more regarding this all later, tagged [tag]spine surgeon[/tag] when I feel up to it.

[tags] surgery, spine surgeon, interview, evaluation, medical, thoughts, notes, memories, PTP[/tags]

By px | Posted in personal | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

Finally My Records, a Crowning Achievement.

2004.07.01 – 1:26 pm PDT

Today the mailman, or woman, brought me my stack of medical records. I’m surprised on how fast the mail system works sometimes. The only lag in this, is the Insurance company, not being efficient in sending my records when I asked for them. I haven’t had a chance to make sure all of it is there, specifically a psychiatrist report from November 2001, which was the reason I had asked for my records.

In other news, I got my permanent crown put on today. It looks really good, color matched and everything. The Dentist say’s it’ll be a few days before my bite adjusts again. I also got a haircut too, it was starting to get a little shaggy.

By px | Posted in personal, workers comp | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Bad Behavior has blocked 897 access attempts in the last 7 days.

>>>>>>> .r246