My Health Information
Welcome to Mywell Health, designed to help you gather, record, and organize your health and lifestyle information, starting with your ‘health profile’. Keeping your health information in one place ensures you are better prepared to make informed decisions.
Gathering your Health Information
Activities
Tip
As you read through the activities – click on the highlighted terms to access their definitions, educational materials, websites, videos, and more.
My Health Profile
What is a Health Profile?
Complete Your Own Health Profile
- Complete an up-to-date record of your personal health information.
- Consider asking others to help you complete your health profile.
- Gather notes and reports on your health conditions, mental illness, infectious diseases, emotional health concerns, allergies, vaccination record, surgical history, family health history, hospitalizations, chronic pain, hearing and vision changes, mobility concerns, and any safety issues, such as falls.
- Complete a medication list including over the counter drugs, vitamins, herbs, supplements and any alcohol use, recreational drug use, or tobacco use.
- Record your emergency contacts and if you are an organ donor, wear a medic alert, or have a Do not resuscitate or no CPR order.
- Review the next activity, Collecting My Health Information, for more sources of your health information.
- Download the MyHealth Profile fillable template to get started.
Collecting My Health Information
Learn how to gather health information.
- Learn how to collect your personal health information from Health Gateway BC such as your vaccination record.
- Sign up for My Care Compass to see your lab results.
- Explore quality sites for disease and treatment information such as Healthlink BC.
- Ask your pharmacist for a print-out of your past and present medications from Pharmanet.
- Keep and review pharmacy handouts you are given. Save them in your print or digital Mywell Health files.
Record and save your information.
- Write down the results from tests, treatments, or imaging (Xray, Ultrasound, CT scan, or MRI).
- Ensure that you have your health care professionals explain all the information you may not understand.
- Learn about your electronic health record, including its benefits and limitations.
- Scan any documents you do collect into your digital Mywell Health files and/or print them for your Mywell Health binder.
Tip
Learn how to save and share your Mywell Health planner files in print and digital formats, and access them on your phone during appointments.
“My dining room table had become cluttered with business cards, handouts, lab tests, reports, and prescriptions, both current and outdated. Feeling overwhelmed by the chaos, I turned to Mywell Health for assistance in organizing all this information. Using the free health profile, I organized all my health information that I had. I asked for help from others. I put all the printed materials in my Mywell Health binder (I keep it in my kitchen). I saved my computer health files using the Mywell topic headings in Dropbox and shared the files with my son. Best of all, I can access my health information whenever I need it from my computer and my phone.”
Tips for Health Care Visits
Preparing for a Health Care Visit
- Know that most medical health visits are scheduled for 10 minutes to deal with 1-2 health questions. You need to book a special time for a physical examination.
- Learn about the different tiles of health care professionals, such as
physician, nurse practitioner, or specialist, and the types of care they can and cannot provide. - Write or record your questions before your visit. Think about new symptoms, medications, test results, need for a referral, or other concerns you are experiencing.
Health Visit Checklist – What to Bring?
- Personal/ provincial health number on your Driver’s license or BC Services card.
- Updated health profile.
- Updated medication list (including OTC, herbs, supplements, and vitamins).
- Question list and goals for the visit.
- Your health advocate to take notes, record instructions, and offer support.
Tip
You can include this preparation for all health care visits including a visit to the physiotherapist, occupational therapist, registered massage therapist, podiatrist, ophthalmologist, and others.
Recording Health Questions, Plans & Goals
Write your questions and record the answers.
- Use a page in your Mywell Health binder, a ‘notes’ page in your digital planner, or the Notes app on your phone.
- Record the date, any new symptoms or problems, your questions, the health professionals answers and their treatment plans.
- Take notes during the health visit or have someone do that for you.
- Ask for clear and or written explanations to your questions.
- Ensure your questions about new medications and treatments, or anything you do not understand are answered before you leave the visit.
Keeping a Health Calendar
Start a Health Calendar
- Keep a health calendar to record your appointments, tests, treatments, medications and/or dosage changes, pain levels, new symptoms, or changes in your physical or emotional health.
- Note important appointments or changes on a white board, print calendar in your kitchen or a digital or phone calendar.
- Keep track of your annual screening tests like hearing, vision, mammogram, and others.
- Share your online calendar with your health advocate and care partners.
- Watch the video on how to create and share an online calendar – click on health calendar in the resource kit.
Mywell is an excellent resource, thorough, comprehensive and easy to read. Lots of guidance and suggestions too. I must say though that at first I found it overwhelming as there are so many topics and possible choices but such a comprehensive website. Hopefully, seniors who are not familiar with computers and the internet, have someone that can help them access all the useful information. You have covered a lot of topics I, and many others, would not have thought to explore – yet there they are. What a gift. You all have produced a remarkable and extremely useful resource for anyone wishing to get informed and act.
Message to Mywell Users
You can download the entire ‘My Health Information’ module as a fillable PDF. After filling it in, save it digitally to your Mywell files for online or phone access, or print it to add to your Mywell Health binder.
Medical Emergency
If you have a medical emergency call 911 immediately. Do NOT use the website or planner for medical emergencies. If you have a medical concern, call your physician or health care professional.
Resource Kit
As you are completing your health and lifestyle activities, you might come across terms & words that are new to you. Click on the highlighted terms to visit the Resource Kit for definitions, educational materials, links to websites, videos, and more!
Your Data is Your Data
Mywell Health does not store your personal health information. We do not provide online storage. Download the planner sections and choose what works best for you:
- Save your PDFs in your own personal online storage space.
- Print your PDFs and put them into a health binder.