According to four of the companies offering the service ? 4HealthyLife.com, StatChart.com, MedicaLogic.com and MedRecsExpress.com, these electronic medical records are valuable in emergency situations and in circumstances when a patient is alone and too sick to convey his or her medical history to a caregiver.

The patient can give a caregiver a card with directions to the appropriate web site or a password to allow the caregiver onto the site and into the patient?s records. On three of the four sites, patients enter their own medical histories. On the fourth, files are automatically updated when a doctor enters new information on a record. One of the four sites includes both original physician records and patient-entered records. All four sites claim their security systems ensure privacy for patients.

But, Joseph Dye, PhD, RPh, behavioral scientist for the American Cancer Society (ACS), said the concept of keeping medical records online seems fraught with challenges. "My reservations are, first of all, with the security and confidentiality. If I?m a person who has a number of medical conditions, I probably wouldn?t want to post them on a web site. I would have to have a lot of assurances about the confidentiality and the access to that web site. That would be my number one concern," he said.

"Having complete medical records in an emergency is a difficult thing no matter what," Dr. Dye added. "If you have something, such an allergy to a certain medication, you should be wearing it on a bracelet instead of waiting for someone to go log onto a web site. If you?re diabetic, I think the First Alert bracelets are a better way of conveying that."

"Plus, I?m not sure how many emergency teams would even know to look on the Internet for a patient?s record or even how many emergency rooms have Internet access. I don?t think it?s going to be an automatic thing for some time," he concluded.

The Web say their value is in the instant ability to retrieve records that they offer. On the StatChart site, which was designed and is run by practicing emergency physicians, a patient signs up with the service and is issued a StatID Card. "Once emergency providers find it, they will be able to access your medical information and EKG within seconds," according to the company.

Another site, 4HealthyLife.com, claims to be useful in emergency situations ? and for storing children?s immunization records and keeping medical records of family pets. MedRecsExpress says patients can keep a problem list, a medication history, immunization records, lab data, radiology results, and cardiology results on its site. Along with other services, the MedicaLogic site allows clinicians to send prescriptions from the doctor?s office to an online drugstore.