Web Yes, Paper & Fax No

This May 10, 2007 article indicates a potential tipping point in web-based health records:

Verizon Communications Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg said on Wednesday that the company has implemented an electronic personal health-record system for its more than 900,000 active employees, retirees and their families. Called Verizon HealthZone PHR, the system works in conjunction with WebMD to allow individuals to store personalized health information on a password-protected Web site, he said.

"We think this kind of a simple connection creates enormous consumer power to drive change across the system," Seidenberg said.

In Washington yesterday for a panel discussion that featured government and private-sector leaders, Seidenberg said Verizon's healthcare tab was about $3.5 billion last year, and, overall, about 90% of those transactions happen hand-to-hand via phone or by fax.

Similarly, the SimplyHome system from CMI is a web-dashboard into a residence where an elderly or disabled person is seeking to stay at home, whereby friends & family help ensure safety, security and well-being by connecting to the system via email and cell phone messaging.

It appears that the web-- that has knit into so many aspects of human life-- is making yet a bigger move into health care.

SimplyHome website