The Internets are a Series of Tubes…but can they hold our Medical Data?

You would think that with the amount of information that we share online in social networks; from sex lives, scandals, broken relationships and odd habits, to what we did yesterday while sitting on the porch, that we could share, or at least store our medical records online. Why did it take so long to do this? And why are medical records so confidential? If we are willing to expose the intricacies of our lives, why is it so important? Would love to hear your comments below, I’m sure there are many different opinions on this.

“the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.” – former United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)

As we move to a world full of information shared over a vast network, we can’t help but lose most of not all of our privacy. This is just the nature of information, sharing. Unlike what the Alaskan Senator mentions, the internet does not get filled up or delayed. It can only be blocked by the hairballs of censorship and political agendas.  It is paperless, weightless, and really the closest thing you can get to being ethereal…so closely connected to concepts spoken about in philosophical and spiritual circles. If you prevent sharing, people begin to take in the name of sharing, and those who really shouldnt have that information end up with it. Make something valuable, and you can put a price on it. I’m all for 100% transparency, I’d rather people not be able to mistake who I am. By creating an online identity people can achieve this. Consistency and Relevancy is king…very similar to SEO principles applied to search engine giants such as Google, Yahoo, Bing…If they know who you are, who can argue?

Medical records are just another tweet to our Twitter status, an update to fill out in our facebook profiles, a new topic to blog about…

Besides, it saves trees, is accurate, quick, efficient, easily transferable to other “specialists” that we are so fond of, and will overall improve our Healthcare system…why not?! and why the delay?!