The Internet

I just received yet another invitation to join a web based portal for one of my (many) doctors.  Access to these kinds of portals provides just about every piece of information there is about your medical status.  Personal information like your height, weight, blood pressure, medications, results of last exam, lab results and diagnoses are all there for you (and hackers?) to see.

This is all done in the name of total transparency-an effort to keep patients informed of their status at any given time in an efficient and timely manner.

The numerous rows of files that one often sees in the doctor's secretary's office are shrinking.  Instead what you now see is the doc walking around with not a stethoscope in his hand but a laptop.

It seems the medical community has joined the digital age with a vengeance all of which makes access to your information very easy and I guess that's the part that has me a tad unsettled.  In spite of the use of secured servers and the huge efforts to secure a patient's privacy, we all know that there are those out there constantly testing the system.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that one or more of these sites will get hacked.  But then let's think about it.  So what?  I have no financial information whatever on any of these portals.  No social security information, no bank records, nothing.  Just a bunch of stuff about my weight and my high blood pressure and other conditions that would in no way benefit a hacker.  So should people be worried?  I suppose not...but still...