Whats the best way to gather family medical information?
Your family may want to work together on developing your family medical history. Holidays and reunions can provide a good opportunity for you and your relatives to gather information. Not everyone, however, may be comfortable disclosing personal medical information. A number of factors may contribute to a person’s reluctance to discuss medical issues, including guilt, shame and painful memories. Consider the following strategies to address these issues with your relatives: • Share your purpose. Explain that you’re creating a record to help you determine whether you and your relatives have a family history of certain diseases or health conditions. Offer to make the medical history available to other family members so that they can share the information with their doctors. • Provide several ways to answer questions. Some people may be more willing to share health information in a face-to-face conversation. Others may prefer answering your questions by phone, mail or email. • Word questio
