

Ask HN:  Can someone please create this:  Family Medical History - sixQuarks

It's so ridiculous when you visit a doctor and they ask about your family history.  I don't know all the ailments my extended family has and I don't even have that much family.&#60;p&#62;I recently found out that some of my family members have thyroid issues, which explains some symptoms I've been going through.&#60;p&#62;There should be a private network where family members can input all their ailments (anonymously if they want), and then you can see what you're at risk for.&#60;p&#62;For those family members who have already passed away (or don't use computers), other family members can input what they know they had.&#60;p&#62;This would be a huge preventative measure.  What do you guys think?
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drseanogrady
Simple goes a long way when it comes to dealing with healthcare information.
In my practice, I created a google form that patients can fill out and then
have access to whenever they need it (for sharing with other providers for
example). It's not elegant, but it's easy, flexible, and it fundamentally
shifts control of the patient record from the doctor to the patient. Happy to
share a customizable template if anyone is interested.

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sixQuarks
What I'm thinking about goes way beyond regular patient information. I'm
thinking along the lines of a "family medical history social network".

For example, I want it to be where family members can input small ailments,
such as "I suffer from cold hands and feet". Now imagine a few other relatives
happen to put this down as well. This is not something that you would ever
reveal in a regular doctor medical history report, but something like this
could, say, indicate that there are circulation issues running in the family.

That's just an example I made up, but imagine the possibilities. The software
should allow "privacy" options, so that if a family member is embarrassed to
reveal an ailment, they can choose to make it private, however, the software
will take that into account to see if there are patterns that it should alert
you to.

I haven't brainstormed enough about this, but I just think this could be
really useful in some way.

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Kluny
I think it's awesome, but better to do it through the doctors office than
through patients, since most people aren't going to bother thinking about it
until they're sick.

I guess there are privacy concerns and stuff, but seriously. It blows my mind
that I have to answer the same questions every time I go to a doctor. In the
21st century, why on earth isn't all this stuff on file somewhere for any
doctor in the world to access?

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sixQuarks
I actually think it will work better as a "private family network". All it
would take is one person to start it, then email family members and tell them
to add whatever info they can. There is a viral effect to it.

Each family member that joins will see themselves as the "center" node, with
branches connecting them to their closest relatives.

The software should be smart enough to connect each member intelligently. So
let's say you enter your grandmother's information, the software will ask:
mother's side or father's side. then will create an empty node for your
parents, and link it through them to your grandmother. (make sense?).

Anyway, there's a bunch of cool things you can do with it.

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maxdemarzi
Interesting. I can build a Proof of Concept for this with Neo4j. Privacy would
be an issue. Do doctors don't need to know who in your family had issues, or
just that someone related to you by DNA had issues? If you have mock-ups of
how it would work and can commit to spending some time, I'll reciprocate.
Tired of finding ways to help sell crap to people, rather work on ways to help
people stay healthy.

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sixQuarks
I don't have mockups, it's just something I've been thinking about, but have
left on the backburner for so long, I know I'll never get around to it. But it
could potentially be of help to so many people, that I don't want to keep the
idea for myself.

If you're really serious, I can help with it. I specialize in product
development and marketing. I know how to get PR, have attracted millions of
visitors to web sites, so I think if this thing is built, I can get good
publicity for it.

