It has taken 18 months of researching and planning, but the Fire Department is rolling out its Shared Care program. And we think it’s a great thing.

Shared Care is a regional service based in Bellingham. It is operated through Peace Health, which runs St. Joseph’s Hospital. Because the San Juans are in the hospital’s service area, they agreed to extend the program to us.

It allows individuals to organize and store all of their health information in one place. You can list medications, allergies, drug interactions, hospitalizations, surgeries, and health indicators such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugars in an online profile. The information is stored on a secure server in Bellingham.

You can make it available to specific people (like doctors, paramedics, pharmacies, and family members) or no one at all. They are considered “patient-centered” online medical records, and it allows each person to manage their own health history. You can authorize others to see parts of the profile or the entire thing. It also leaves “fingerprints” behind: patients are alerted when their information is viewed by an authorized user.

Most importantly, the program allows medical personnel to quickly call up information during an emergency. Individuals can access their plan on the Internet anywhere in the world. If you’re in Tokyo, and you’re having a heart attack, paramedics can look up your entire medical history quickly – if you’ve authorized it. You can print out a wallet size summary of your information as well.

The service is particularly helpful for senior citizens, who often live alone and may not remember all of their medications during a crisis. It is also beneficial for those who have had multiple health issues.

The Fire Department has 100 slots available now; more can enroll later. There are trained volunteers on the island who will help you sign up. Hilary Canty, who has been involved with the project since the beginning, says they hope to have someone at each clinic who can assist as well.

It is an entirely free – and elective – program, but the benefits are immense. For those who think the program invades privacy, then it may not be a service for you. But look at it this way: many of our health records are online already through insurance companies. By having our very own medical profile, we can control who sees it and when it is updated. It’s one more way to put health care into our own hands.