Why do #IHeartHIT? Connectivity. Successfully managing a chronic disease while relocating from Ohio to Florida and traveling frequently for work has not been the easiest task to undertake.  I have been doing this for five years now.  I drew the metaphorical short straw and developed Rheumatoid Arthritis approximately seven years ago.  What followed was a fairly complicated regimen of oral steroids, injectable biologic medications, and some anti-inflammatories which lead to their own set of side effects and secondary issues that also need to be managed intermittently.

Fortunately, my providers in Ohio were early adopters of a fully integrated patient portal along with detailed structured data capture in the EHR.  The ability to quickly login to the portal from my smart phone and view my medications, active problems, and prior notes from both my PCP and Rheumatologist has made the transition much simpler.

Developing a case of bronchitis while traveling to a client site in California?  No problem.  Check in with a local provider, login to the portal, provide my med list to the current clinician, and they can immediately devise the proper treatment.  Regular use of high levels of anti-inflammatories resulting in stomach ulcers?  Unfortunately, yes.  Luckily, my new PCP can take a quick glance at previous notes and quickly jump through all the hoops to prescribe a proton pump inhibitor instead of starting the entire process from scratch, curing my problem in matter of days.

Participate in your own healthcare, but do so intelligently and efficiently by leveraging the HIT available to you and your providers. #IHeartHIT