Mr. deBronkart:
Well, I’ve been using the PATIENTSITE system at Beth
Israel Deaconess in Boston for--PATIENTSITE?
PATIENTSITE is the name of the web site. It’s a
secure system where I can go in, and instead of
sending information loosely on the internet where it
can be eavesdropped and snooped, I can go in behind
a firewall and see the actual medical records...
Mr. Sesno:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. deBronkart:
My lab test results, radiology reports and so on.
Mr. Sesno:
All your own records?
Mr. deBronkart:
Yes. Uh-huh. Exactly. Exactly.
Mr. Sesno:
Okay. Mm-hmm.
Mr. deBronkart:
You know, and that carries a certain responsibility
with it because you know, I’m not a doctor. I need
to be responsible about what I’m looking at and
reading questions--asking questions. So what
happened with me just a month ago is that I was
already set to have my annual physical with the
doctor, but I had a few symptoms that I wanted to
bring up. So using their secure e-mail, I was able
to ask him those questions, and he told me to go
ahead and set up some follow-up appointments without
waiting for the physical.
Mr. Sesno:
So to expedite that whole process...
Mr. deBronkart:
Yes. Exactly.
Mr. Sesno:
Based on the information that you yourself had
gotten from your own computerized records?
Mr. deBronkart:
Well, in that case, it was just, "I’m having a
problem with my shoulder."
Mr. Sesno:
Uh-huh.
Mr. deBronkart:
"I’ve had something going on with my knee," um, a
variety of things like that.
Mr. Sesno:
Did you end up starting your cancer treatment
earlier than you might have otherwise?
Mr. deBronkart:
Well, what happened was one of the follow-up
appointments we set up in advance was a shoulder
x-ray. And so two days after my physical, I had the
shoulder x-ray, and they said, "Hey. there’s a spot
on your lung." And that led to, within a week,
diagnosing that I had kidney cancer. I had no
symptoms. Heaven only knows when I would have
actually had that detected. And because I didn’t
have to wait two months for my appointment for the
shoulder x-ray, I was able to get the--get the
diagnosis and the treatment started.