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Surgeon General urges Americans to know their family health history

E-Health Trend Watch, January 20, 2006

U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, MD, MPH, released an updated version of "My Family Health Portrait" on November 15, 2005. The tool is designed to help families gather health information. Carmona urged families to collect important health history information to prevent disease and promote personal health. The free Web-based computerized tool organizes family health information into a printout that people can take to healthcare professionals to determine why they are at higher risk for certain diseases.

Updates to this tool allow users to reconfigure family health information to shift the focus from the person entering the information to other family members, enabling users to produce diagrams or charts for all members of their family.

Brigham and Women's Hospital of Boston launched the tool among its 12,000 employees, which include physicians, nurses, administrative, service, and management staff.

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