The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released an updated and improved version of the Surgeon General’s Internet-based family health history tool. The new tool makes it easier for consumers to assemble and share family health history information. It can also help practitioners make better use of health history information so they can provide more informed and personalized care for their patients.
“This valuable tool can put family histories to work to improve patient well-being and the quality of care,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. “The tool is built on health information technology standards that make it more convenient for consumers and more useful for practitioners. It is ready for use in electronic health records. And its software code will be openly available to other health organizations, so they can customize and build on its standards base.”
“Family history has always been an important part of good health care, but it has been underused,” said Acting Surgeon General Steven Galson, a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service. “Today, with our growing knowledge of genetics, family history is becoming even more important. The new tool will help consumers and clinicians alike. It will also serve as a platform for developing new risk assessment software that will help in screening and prevention of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions.”
The first adopter of the HHS-developed tool is the National Institute of Genomic Medicine of Mexico (INMEGEN). Dr. Gerardo Jimenez-Sanchez, director general of the institute, will release the Mexican Spanish-language version of the tool in Mexico City this month. The Mexican family health history tool will be available on the INMEGEN Web site, http://www.inmegen.gob.mx.
The Indian Health Service, an agency of HHS that was instrumental in developing the new Surgeon General tool, will also adopt it into the IHS care system.
One organization saying it will link to the new tool is the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), a cancer advocacy organization. “A strong family health history tool can be an important element for guiding medical decision-making, especially in the area of cancer screening, prevention and early detection,” said LAF founder and chairman Lance Armstrong. “This tool will further the capabilities of electronic health records and takes a significant step toward improving clinical care.”
The Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait was originally launched in 2004, but the first version was not standards-based. The new tool was developed under Secretary Leavitt’s Initiative on Personalized Health Care. It will be hosted by the National Cancer Institute, where the caBIG® initiative is pioneering health IT networks and software sharing. A ready process for organizations to download the family health history code is at https://gforge.nci.nih.gov/projects/fhh.
The Surgeon General’s new My Family Health Portrait tool is located at https://familyhistory.hhs.gov. In addition, a presentation of sample risk assessment tools under development can be viewed at http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=7297 .
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