Abstract: A patient-centric medical record access and control method is disclosed wherein the patient has full read privileges and limited write privileges to the patient's electronic medical record account, and further wherein the patient can designate specific individual and institutional healthcare providers with access to the patients EMR account, and can limit access by previously designated providers. In an embodiment of the method, the patient is provided with a selectable list of providers, and selects one or more providers for access. The selected providers receive access, notification and demographic information on the patient. In another aspect, the patient can removably designate a guardian to have access generally the same as the patient's access to the EMR account. In another aspect of the invention, the selected providers can optionally terminate their write access to the EMR account, and termination notification is provided to the patient.

Abstract: A teleconferencing system is disclosed that enables patient and physician teleconferencing stations (100) to communicate over a global network (104), wherein the teleconferencing stations include access to a database of electronic medical records (110). The system includes means for instant text messaging (130), audio/video conferencing (142), and secure e-mail exchange (146). The patient and physician have differential access to the electronic medical records, such that the electronic medical records can be updated. The physician station includes means for capturing image data received from the patient station and storing the captured image data into a medical record. In the preferred embodiment the system is able to teleconference more than two stations at a time. In the preferred embodiment, the physician station includes means for entering a prescription (310) and for entering hospital orders (304).