I’ve started building my own personal health record at ihealthrecord.com, and when I log in again to continue filling it out, up pops an “overview” page that advises me to review and update my PHR at least once every six months. The page also lets me know I can print out a copy of my record at any time as well as a wallet size copy so that I “can keep your important health info with you at all times.” It also states, somewhat breathlessly:

No more filling out the clipboard! Before your next doctor’s appointment, click on iHealthRegistration at the top right corner of this page to generate a printable form that you can bring with you to your doctor’s office. I click on the links for all these copies and what strikes me most is how similar the form looks to the one I fill out whenever I visit a physician for the first time. It’s as if ihealthrecord.com has discovered that doctors will accept anything a new patient gives them, so long as it looks as if it’s a form their receptionist gave out. (”Looks like one of mine, all bland and officious. And the handwriting! Looks like typing. I like this new patient already. Send her in!”) The next page of the PHR asks typical questions: my race, primary language, height, weight, blood type, marital status and number of children.I have one child, yet I’ve never given birth, but the form at this point assumes a child means I’ve been pregnant. Whether a woman has been pregnant or given birth or not is important information for her doctor to know. I think this PHR would better serve female users by asking more detailed questions, such as number of pregnancies and if those pregnancies were carried to term.The next page asks me to list my medications. Which intrigues me – why ask this now, so soon within the PHR? I can see headings for subsequent sections of the record on the left side of the page: conditions/medical history, allergies, emergency contact, surgeries/procedures and so on. Why is ihealthrecord.com interested in my prescription list before it knows of any illnesses and treatments I may have had?

I can pick from a list of 20 common medications, from Zyrtec, Lipitor, Ibuprofen, etc. There’s also a scrolldown menu of 200 additional drugs and as I look through it, it floors me how many of them I recognize: Actonel, Allegra, Ambien, Celebrex. Detrol LA, Elidel, Flomax. And those are just the drugs that begin with the letters A-F. Note to drug manufacturers: Advertising works..

And then I start to get silly. Two hundred drugs from which to choose? What would happen if I select all of them? Will the online PHR form throw me a pop up warning: “200 MEDICATIONS! 200!? Surely you jest!!!??”

So I click on all 200, hit Enter and all that appears is a list of the meds. No questions asked. No warnings. No shrieks coming from my speakers.

But when I go to remove those drugs from my record, I can only do so one by one. One. By. One. Takes me 15 minutes.

That’ll teach me to experiment with drugs.