Photo: Josh Winquist

For many people, the Interior Health Authority's "MyHealthPortal" is a valuable tool in accessing their medical information. 

It allows users 24-hour, online access to their personal health information from a home computer or smartphone.

People in the Vernon area will be the first to benefit from the program's expansion.

The MyHealthPortal will now include additional clinical reports this summer.

Interior Health is the first health authority in the province to implement this service. 

"The inclusion of dictated documents from practitioners will be a great help to patients," says Interior Health Board Chair Doug Cochrane. "Giving them the ability to access their health information directly will help them become better informed and engaged in their own care." 

The inclusion of expanded clinical reports (for example, cardiac and other outpatient reports, discharge summaries, neurodiagnostic and others) is being phased in. 

Additional reports are now available to Vernon MyHealthPortal users and will be available in the Kootenays in late August before being expanded across all of Interior Health in September.

Since its launch in June 2016, more than 45,000 patients are currently enrolled to use MyHealthPortal to access their health information.
 
MyHealthPortal provides patients with 24-hour secure online access to their Interior Health lab results, medical imaging reports, visit history, and certain appointment details and instructions.